Every Dawning Day
by Wild Force Ranger
Summary: The Daleks steal Earth, just as they'd planned. But this time around, the Children of Time have an extra weapon - they have Nathan. Sequel to Ev'ry Darkest Sky.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: This is a follow up to _Every Darkest Sky_. It picks up just into _The Stolen Earth._

Every Dawning Day

As soon as she reasonably could, Martha slipped away from the control room and headed for the labs. Corporal White, Nathan's current guard, was leaning against the wall by the door.

Martha paused, eyeing the blood on his forehead. "Has someone looked at that?"

"Wunderkind. He says there's no concussion. The medics are on their way, they had a lot of more serious injuries to look at first."

Martha examined it quickly. "It's stopped bleeding. It doesn't look like you have a concussion. Have you called for a replacement?"

"There's no one spare right now."

"I'll take over. Go and get that looked at and then do what you can to help in the infirmary."

"Ma'am." He saluted sharply, heading off.

Nathan was sitting on the floor under the window, dispiritedly fiddling with some of the pieces on the floor. He glanced up when she came in, scrambling to his feet and rushing to throw his arms around her.

"Hey," Martha said quietly. "I'm sorry, I couldn't get away. Are you all right? Not hurt?"

"Not hurt."

"Good. Listen, I checked in with Mount Snowdon. Rani and the Jacksons are fine. None of them were hurt, and they're working just like we are, ok?"

"Thank you," he murmured. "What's happened? Felt like some sort of cross-dimensional spatial transference."

"If you say so," she agreed, bemused. "We're not sure yet. Have you seen an image of the sky?"

"Yes. Twenty six plus us. And the stars are all wrong. Earth's moved to a completely different galaxy."

"That's what they're saying," she agreed. "Come with me."

"Why?"

"I can't stay down here and I dismissed your guard. You can work on this up in Control like the rest of our brightest minds."

"I'm not cleared."

"You can use my login. I'll trust you this once. Come on."

General Sanchez was yelling as they reached Control. Martha pushed Nathan into a seat in front of a terminal, got him logged on, and pulled out her mobile.

"Geneva is calling a Code Red! Everyone to battle positions! Dr Jones, if you're not too busy –"

"Trying to phone the Doctor, sir. But there's no answer! This phone calls anywhere in the universe, it never breaks down. They must be blocking it. Whoever they are."

"We're about to find out. They're coming into orbit."

Nathan tugged lightly at her sleeve; she turned and he slid the phone from her grip, examining it carefully. "It's still working," he confirmed. "No signal degradation, no lose of strength."

"Do you know why he isn't getting it?"

"No. I'm sorry. He should be receiving it."

She nodded, taking it back from him and dialling again.

"Martha Jones! Voice of a nightingale." Jack's voice hardened. "Tell me you put something in my drink."

"No such luck. Have you heard from the Doctor?"

"Not a word," Jack said regretfully. "Where are you?"

"New York."

"Nice for some!"

"I've been promoted, Medical Director on Project Indigo."

"Hey, d'you get that thing working?"

"Indigo's top secret. No one's supposed to know about it."

"Well, I met a soldier in a bar – long story." Away from the phone, he added, "It was strictly professional."

"We're getting a signal," Nathan murmured, gesturing towards the centre of the room. Martha automatically turned in that direction, letting the phone drop as she listened.

"Oh, _Christ_ ," she breathed.

 _Exterminate – exterminate – exterminate – exterminate –_

She tugged Nathan with her towards the window. Outside a Dalek saucer was hovering over the street, taking random pot shots at the fleeing people.

"What are they?" Nathan asked softly.

"Daleks." Martha lifted her phone again. "Jack? Are you there?" Hearing nothing, she quietly flicked the phone off.

"Daleks are extinct. They died in the Time War."

"And several times since," she agreed. "There's always one or two left."

"That is more than one or two."

"Yes."

Something in the base of the building exploded. Martha lost her footing as the floor shook, skidding into the nearest desk. Nathan clung to the window frame; the building pitched again and he fell to his knees.

"Stay there!" Martha yelled, struggling upright. The building swayed once more and then settled.

"It's not even," Nathan muttered. "Variance of point three degrees from horizontal..."

"Nathan!" Martha snapped. "I need the first aid kit. Over there, in that cabinet. Please." Nathan nodded, scrambling carefully across the floor. Martha made her way to the nearest downed soldier, examining him quickly.

Nathan pushed the case under her fingers and she glanced up; he'd grabbed a second for himself. "Good," she said, smiling as best she could. "Time to put your first aid lessons to work."

Nathan turned and headed for the nearest soldier, crouching to run a quick visual assessment. Martha kept on with what she was doing.

Between them they had most of the soldiers and workers treated when Martha's phone rang again. Distracted, she flipped it open while working.

"Martha, you've got to get out of there!"

"I can't, Jack, I've got a job to do." Martha finished off the bandage, smiling quickly at the soldier, and glanced around for Nathan.

"Dr Jones, you will come with me." She looked up to see Sanchez standing over her with a soldier behind him. "We're activating Project Indigo."

"Martha, that's not ready, you can't use it!" Jack yelled. Martha ignored him, gesturing quickly to Nathan. The boy joined her as she was ushered down a corridor; Martha squeezed his hand reassuringly and he smiled shakily.

Sanchez unlocked the door of the Project Indigo storage compartment, gesturing. "Put it on."

"It's not ready," Nathan murmured, helping her with the buckles.

"You shouldn't even be here, you're not cleared for this project," Sanchez snapped at him. Nathan flinched, taking a step back.

"Martha, please, don't do it," Jack begged in her ear.

"You take your orders from UNIT, Dr Jones, not Torchwood!" Sanchez said hotly.

"Why me, sir?" Martha asked, fastening the final buckle.

"You're our only hope at finding the Doctor."

She nodded, turning to Nathan. "Go down to your lab and look yourself in. Don't let anyone in, do you understand?"

Nathan nodded, pushing away from the wall; the soldier jerked him back as the door blew in. "Stay behind me," he ordered grimly.

"Go, Dr Jones," Sanchez ordered, drawing his weapon and joining the soldier, aiming at the approaching Daleks.

Martha bit her lip, fingers curled around the handles of the Indigo harness, and then shook her head. "Nathan!"

He turned to look at her and she held out a hand; when he took it she jerked, making him stumble towards her. "Hold on tight," she ordered, letting go and holding onto the handles again. Nathan wound one arm through the straps, hanging on tightly as she jerked the strings.

Everything narrowed to a pinpoint; the noise and colour and everything pressed in on her, deafening and blinding and overwhelming her. She was aware, though, when Nathan's grip slipped and he tumbled away.

And she was aware when she landed, alone, on a tiled floor.

She was still trying to explain to her mother, some time later, when her laptop flicked on. "...getting through. Let me see if I can boost the signal." A figure loomed through static, resolving into Harriet Jones. "Dr Jones, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I can hear you." Martha sat in front of the computer. "What is this?"

"Hang on a moment, let me just..." Harriet typed at something offscreen and it split into four; Harriet was in one box, Martha could see herself in another, one was blank, and the last...

"Jack!"

"Martha," he said, relieved. "Where are you?"

"Project Indigo must work better than we thought. One second I was in New York, the next – well, maybe it tapped into my mind or something, cos it brought me to the one place I wanted to be."

"You came home," her mother said warmly. "At the end of the world, you came home to me." Martha smiled at her.

"I don't understand, though. What is this?"

"And who are we missing?" Jack added, gesturing at his own screen.

"That contact is having problems. It's an unusual system. Just a moment." She typed rapidly; after a long moment the empty corner of screen wavered, resolving into an empty room. Wherever it was had clearly been unused for a while; dust and cobwebs lay heavily over everything.

"Who's there?" Harriet asked sharply.

"Who is asking?" a male voice said smoothly.

"Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."

"Yes: I know who you are. I was unclear. Why are you calling here?"

"This is the Subwave network. It's programmed to seek out any one who's had contact with the Doctor."

"There is no one here who fits that description."

"Where is that?" Jack said, squinting at the screen. "I thought I knew most of the contemporary Companions."

Harriet glanced to one side. "Bannerman Road."

"Banner...that's Sarah Jane Smith's old house?" Martha said in surprise. "How is there anything still there? I thought UNIT cleared that place out."

"They did, and so did we, but we must have missed something," Jack agreed. "It doesn't matter, Martha, we need..."

"Martha?" Someone scrabbled off screen for a moment before Nathan stepped into view.

"Nathan!" Martha reached for the screen before remembering herself. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know. This is where Project Indigo left me."

"You brought him with you?" Jack said in surprise.

"I couldn't leave him in New York, it was being overrun. Nathan, are you all right?"

"I landed funny. I think I've broken my ankle. But I'm all right apart from that. Mr Smith says so."

"If Mr Smith says so, he's right," Jack said quickly. "Nathan, is it safe there?"

"There's noises outside. But the Daleks haven't come in here. Mr Smith says they probably won't. "

"What are you basing that on, Mr Smith?"

"My calculations are not relevant," Mr Smith said solemnly.

Jack caught Martha's eye, mouthing 'Bluff?' Martha shrugged.

"Nathan," she said, looking back at him, "I want you to stay where you are, all right? I'll get in touch with UNIT as soon as I can, get someone out there to you. For now, you have to lie low, all right?"

"Yes, Dr Jones," he said obediently. "Mr Smith is slightly damaged, maybe I can help fix him."

"Don't do anything that would take you out of contact with us," she ordered.

"I'll be careful."

"Good. Now." She looked at Harriet. "I'm sorry. Where were we?"

Clyde wasn't sure when he started hearing the noises.

The other noises – the ones outside – hadn't changed or faded, though at least they weren't coming any closer. Apparently even the Daleks knew that no one lived on Bannerman Road anymore.

Clyde had been sitting in a corner of the kitchen, trying to persuade himself that he could easily make it home before the Daleks caught him, when he suddenly realised the noises he'd been listening to from upstairs were actually voices. He couldn't make out the words – they were too far away, and there was too much noise outside – but they were definitely voices. Frowning, he listened a little longer and then crept up towards the stairs. If someone else was hiding here, he wanted to be sure they weren't about to bring the Daleks in on top of him.

He still couldn't hear anything from the landing; he edged even more carefully up the attic flight, trying to find a spot where he could see into the attic without being seen.

A stair creaked under his foot and he looked down in horror.

"Stranger detected," someone said from inside the attic. Clyde shifted, still trying to see, and the door swung open, blinding him with sudden light.

"Hello, Clyde," a boy's voice he didn't recognise said. "Come and help me with this."

"What?" Clyde scrubbed at his eyes, trying to clear them. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I didn't; I was up here. Help me. I don't have enough hands."

"Trouble?" an older man – American – asked. Clyde blinked as his vision cleared.

"No." The boy turned away from Clyde, seeming to lose interest, and focused on the innards of some kind of computer. "It's just Clyde."

"Clyde Langer," the man said in delight.

Clyde finally focused on the screen, blinking. "Captain Harkness. How does..." Glancing at the boy, he added, "Nathan? You're Nathan, right? You were with Torchwood."

"UNIT," Nathan corrected him. "But yes, I am who you think I am. Can you please hold this for me? I'm running out of time."

Clyde glanced at the screen; it was split in four, but there was no one in any of the windows at the moment. Even Captain Harkness had vanished. "What are you doing?" he asked, giving in and dropping to sit next to Nathan.

"I'm trying to fix Mr Smith so we can call the Doctor."

"Don't think anyone's going to be making housecalls today, mate."

"No, not the...not a medical professional. The Doctor. He's the only one who can stop the Daleks."

"You've got my vote, then," Clyde declared. "What do I need to do?"


	2. Chapter 2

"I think that's everything," Nathan declared a few minutes later. "Mr Smith, self check please."

"Quick as you can," Gwen Cooper added. Clyde glanced at the screen; people had been coming and going for a while, and he didn't recognise the women in the other windows.

"My scans run at a predetermined speed," Mr Smith said primly.

The talking computer didn't even phase Clyde. It wasn't nearly the weirdest thing he'd seen today.

"Scans complete," Mr Smith announced. "Though I will need additional work, I am sufficiently well-repaired for our purposes. Linking phone networks now."

"Jack!" Gwen called over her shoulder.

"What's the plan?" Clyde asked, sitting forward.

"We have a phone number for the Doctor." Nathan seemed unaware that Clyde had no idea who the Doctor was, yet, though everyone was referring to him that way: The Doctor. "Torchwood are sending all the power of the Rift, and Mr Smith is going to use it to connect to every phone exchange in the world. Every phone on the planet will call him, and hopefully the signal will be strong enough to reach him, wherever he is."

"And he'll fix this?" Clyde gestured vaguely towards the skylight; Nathan had closed it a while ago to block out the sounds of screaming from outside.

"He can't make it not happen. But he can make it stop happening."

"Can he?"

Nathan nodded. "My guardian says so."

"Dialling," Mr Smith announced, and Nathan turned back to the screen. Clyde watched, but it was all graphs and numbers; none of it meant anything to him.

"Mrs Jones," Ianto said suddenly. "The Daleks have located you."

"Yes," she agreed calmly, typing. "Captain Harkness, I'm transferring the Subwave Network to you. Good luck."

"Ma'am," Captain Harkness agreed, saluting. Clyde blinked as her screen flicked off, glancing at Nathan; he was watching the screen, expressionless. The black woman – Clyde hadn't caught her name – was talking to the older woman, probably her mother, and Gwen had stepped away from the screen.

"Did they just kill Harriet Jones?" he demanded.

"They've killed a lot of people," Captain Harkness said distantly.

"But they can't..."

"They can, that's why we need the Doctor. Mr Smith, anything?"

"Yes. Please focus on co ordinates..." Clyde missed the numbers, not following, but Nathan looked excited.

"Gotcha," Captain Harkness hissed. "Mr Smith, can you confirm?"

"Confirmed. The TARDIS is materialising." Mr Smith rattled off the address.

"Great. Nathan, I need you to stay exactly where you are, got it? Clyde, I can't give you orders, but my advice would be to stay there. It's as safe as anywhere."

"Safe sounds good to me," Clyde said fervently.

"Be careful," Nathan added. The black woman smiled, reaching out to touch her screen, and Captain Harkness saluted again before the screen turned off.

"Please keep scanning, Mr Smith," Nathan said politely. "I can't take you offline now, but as soon as this is over I'll do my best for you."

"Thank you, Nathan. That would be most appreciated."

Clyde shifted, sitting back away from the wires and pieces still spread all over the floor. "Can you explain what's going on, now? How'd you even get here?"

"The teleporter dropped me off," Nathan said absently.

"The teleporter dropped you off."

"By accident. Dr Jones was wearing it. I was just hanging on."

"You know what? I've changed my mind. Don't tell me anything." He pushed to his feet, wandering away to inspect the nearby bookcase. "I don't know why these things always happen to me."

"What's happened to you?"

Clyde half-turned, eyeing him. "You do remember where we first met?"

"Better than you do, I think. Do you remember it?"

"No," he muttered.

"Clyde," Mr Smith said abruptly, "as you seem uninjured, could you go downstairs and see if there are any painkillers left in the kitchen?"

"You hardly need painkillers, Mr Smith."

"They are for Nathan."

"Nathan," Clyde repeated. "What's wrong with Nathan?"

"I broke my ankle."

"You...and you're sitting there fiddling with his wires? Honestly!" He turned, hurrying downstairs.

Some rummaging in the cupboards produced painkillers and bottled water, as well as a box of crackers that hadn't gone off yet. He brought everything back up and made Nathan eat some of the crackers before giving him the pills.

Mr Smith flared to life a little while after the Crucible's explosion, startling Clyde who'd been drifting into sleep. "Calling Nathan and Mr Smith and that other boy," the man who was probably The Doctor said cheerfully.

"Clyde," he protested.

"Clyde, right, yes. Sorry."

"Is Martha all right?" Nathan asked quickly. "And Captain Harkness? And your team?"

"Everyone's fine, Nathan, promise. Now Mr Smith, I want you to harness the Rift Power and loop it around the Tardis, got that?"

"I regret I will need access to the TARDIS base code."

"Blimey, that'll take a while," the Doctor muttered.

"Perhaps not. Nathan, do you recall your first visit to this attic?"

"Yes. I didn't have a name then."

"Sarah Jane opened a safe to speak with K9. Did you see the combination?"

"Yes." Nathan stood, swaying; Clyde hurried to prop him up. Together they crossed the room to the safe and Nathan opened it, leaning heavily against the wall beside it.

"K9," Mr Smith said loudly. "Can you hear me?"

"Affirmative, Mr Smith."

"I need access to the TARDIS base code."

K9 didn't answer, and the Doctor yelled "K9! Give him the code!"

"Affirmative, Master," K9 said obediently, materialising in the attic and linking to Mr Smith.

"Nathan, sit down," Martha ordered. "Clyde, can you..."

"I got him," Clyde assured her, dragging Nathan back to sit on the floor.

"Good," the Doctor said, watching the screen. "Boys, this is going to be bumpy, so hang onto something."

"I'll be with you soon," Martha told them. The screen flicked off and everything started shaking around them. Clyde hung onto Nathan with one hand, K9 with the other, and waited it out.

* * *

It wasn't hard to find the house. The whole road had been destroyed apart from two houses across the road from each other, and Mickey was pretty sure which one had been Sarah Jane's.

"Anyone here?" he called from the hall. "Nathan! Martha sent me!"

"Up here," a boy's voice answered after a moment. It wasn't Nathan, but Martha had said there was another boy here.

Mickey headed up to the attic, mildly surprised at how untouched the place was. Dusty and dirty, yeah, but not damaged. Considering that the Bane's most important prisoners had been held here, he'd been expecting a lot more mess and destruction.

Nathan was sitting on the floor in front of Mr Smith, fiddling with some wires. The other boy was hovering over him; he turned when Mickey came in, taking a step or two away. "Nathan, you know this guy?"

Nathan glanced up, eyeing him. "No."

"Martha sent me. Said your first guard at UNIT, in Mount Snowdon, was called Ross."

"Yes." That was apparently good enough for Nathan, who went back to what he was doing without another look.

"How's your ankle?"

"Broken."

"Yeah, he's not so good at actual information," the other boy agreed. "I've been giving him painkillers. Not sure if they're actually having any effect or not. Clyde, by the way."

"Mickey Smith. Martha's on her way," Mickey told them. "Got held up dealing with UNIT."

"Dealing with them," Nathan repeated.

"Yeah. Here." He swung his bag off his back, handing it to Clyde. "We figured you'd be hungry by now."

"I like you," Clyde declared, digging through the bag and passing Nathan a cereal bar.

"Where's Captain Harkness?" Nathan asked.

"Helping Martha. He was going to come, but we thought you might need help with Mr Smith and I'm better at that than he is."

"There is certainly a lot to do," Mr Smith agreed. Mickey jumped, eyeing the screen warily.

"Mr Smith, are you rooted to this location?" he asked. "If we wanted to, could we remove you?"

"It would be difficult, but doable. Why?"

He shrugged. "You're a resource."

"Not one that can be bent, Mickey Smith."

"No one's talking about bending. But you helped Sarah Jane protect the world, right?"

"Yes."

"You could help us."

"Perhaps."

"All right. Let's have a look here."

Martha arrived a little later; they could hear her talking to someone downstairs before she came up. "Hey, guys," she said, dropping her bag by the door. "Hi. Clyde, right? I'm Martha."

Clyde waved from the couch; he'd retreated there to watch Mickey and Nathan work on Mr Smith. "Nice to meet you."

"Are you hurt at all?"

"No, I'm fine. Thanks."

She grinned at him. "Nathan, come over here and let me look at you."

"Yes, Dr Jones." To Mickey, he added, "Do you have it?"

"Got it. Go ahead." Mickey shifted slightly, holding a piece out of Nathan's way. Clyde got up to help Nathan hobble over to the couch.

"Nathan, there are two UNIT guards downstairs," Martha told him. "Be careful if you're trying to go anywhere, all right?" She touched his ankle and he hissed, trying to draw it back; frowning, she added, "Although you won't be going anywhere for a while."

"He's not allowed go anywhere?" Clyde repeated.

"He's under UNIT care," Martha said absently. "Nathan, I need to wrap it, I'm sorry. Mickey, can you escort Clyde home?"

"In a sec. I can't stop right now." He kept working for several minutes before carefully extricating himself. "Right. Let's go." Mickey grinned at Martha, pushing to his feet and stretching.

"Thank you for your help, Clyde," Nathan said politely.

"Welcome. See you 'round." Clyde made a vague attempt at a salute in Martha's direction before heading down the stairs, Mickey on his heels.

Martha tied off the bandage. "How does that feel? Not too tight?"

Nathan tested it briefly. "Not too tight. Thank you, Dr Jones."

"Stay off it if you can for a while. I want to get you under a scanner. It feels like a clean break, but it's hard to tell."

"May I be of assistance?" Mr Smith asked politely. "Nathan, please extend your leg a little." A bright green scan light shone across his leg. "Scan detects a clean break with no fragments. Painful but relatively uncomplicated. It should heal with no complications."

"Can I see?" Martha asked.

"Unfortunately, my display is not working very well at the moment."

"I had to shift the processing power away from it," Nathan explained. "I can fix that right now if you like, Mr Smith."

"Thank you, Nathan. I would appreciate that."

Martha helped him over to sit in front of Mr Smith; he got back to work and was quickly lost in Mr Smith's innards. Martha wandered around the attic; most of the sensitive items had already been taken by UNIT or Torchwood in the wake of the Bane invasion, but there were still some interesting things to see.

She checked in with the guards a couple of times, sending one off to get something to eat, and when he came back she made Nathan stop his work and eat.

They were finishing up when footsteps pounded up the stairs. Martha rose in surprise as Clyde burst in, barely glancing at them before retreating to the farthest corner of the room. Mickey came in more slowly, hat in his hand and eyes dark.

"There's no one home at his place," he said quietly. "Nothing out of place and the Daleks never made it to that street, so it looks like she got caught away from home when the attack started. We hung around for a while, but I didn't want to leave him on his own, so I made him leave a note and come back here – he's pretty mad at me."

Martha glanced across at Clyde, who was speed dialling his phone every four or five seconds. "The networks are still down, Clyde." He ignored her, continuing to dial.

She crossed the attic, gently pushing his phone down. "Give me a description, Clyde. Every UNIT member in London will be on the lookout for her. I promise."

He gave the description in a flat tone, going straight back to dialling the phone as soon as she turned away. Martha relayed the description to the guards, ordering them to pass it to the groups around the city. "Priority one, guys. Any UNIT personnel see her, I want to know about it. Understand?"

"What will happen if you can't find her?" Nathan asked quietly.

"Not sure. Think Alan Jackson would be up for another adoption?" She smiled to show him she was joking. "We'll take care of him, Nathan. Don't worry."

"I'm not. You take care of me." Glancing at his plate, he added, "I'm finished. Mr Smith, can you help me with Mr Smith?"

"You gotta call me Mickey," Mickey told him. "It's just too confusing otherwise. Yeah, I'll give you a hand. What are you working on?"

"The screen resolution. It's not quite right and the display is off."

"Right." Mickey hauled him to his feet, helping him across the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Clyde dropped to sit next to Nathan some time later. "Need another pair of hands?" he offered.

"Thank you. Can you hold this?" Nathan gestured to a bundle of wires. "It's not live, it's just in the way."

"Yeah." Clyde lifted it carefully out of the way. "You understand all this?"

"Most of it. It helps that he talks. He can explain the bits I don't get. How's that, Mr Smith?"

"Running checks," the computer said.

Nathan glanced at Clyde, lowering his voice. "I'm sorry your mother is missing."

"Are you?" Clyde said listlessly.

"I'm sorry it upsets you. I don't really understand mothers."

"How'd you mean?"

"You know what my mother was."

"Bane, right?"

He nodded, pressing a wire gently into place. "True Bane. She made me, and she made commands in my brain that I had to follow. She made me hurt people, and I didn't know I was doing it most of the time."

"There is a loose wire in section three alpha," Mr Smith told them. Nathan shifted onto his back, wriggling under the casing.

"I burned out her commands," he continued, voice slightly muffled but still audible. "So she couldn't control me any more. But I had to burn all of her out to do it. So I don't really...I remember her, but there are no feelings attached. It's like looking at a screen. I know what happened, but I feel nothing." He wriggled back out. "Mr Smith?"

"That seems correct. I must run diagnostics; it will take approximately three minutes."

Clyde considered him. "You have Martha."

"Yes," Nathan agreed. "She's my guardian."

"She cares about you."

"Captain Harkness and the Doctor put me in her care."

"Nah." Clyde shook his head. "I know duty, Nathan. That's not duty. She cares about you."

Nathan considered the idea. "Do you think so?"

"Don't you care about her?"

"I...would not like it if she was injured. When she was on the Crucible...I was worried. I wanted her to come back and be where I knew she was safe."

"Yeah. And you don't feel that about...Wormmeat?"

"Wormwood," Nathan corrected him automatically. "My mother is dead."

"When she was alive. Did you want her to be around when she was alive?"

Nathan was silent for a moment, poking absently at some loose wires. "No," he said finally. "I didn't want her around. The commands made me love her and obey her, but I liked it better when she wasn't here. She liked to hurt me, and the girls, and that...I didn't like it. Martha's never done that. I like being around her."

"She seems nice," Clyde agreed.

"What is your mother like?"

"My mo...she's a mother, I guess." He smiled faintly. "She taught me to cook. Says I make the best spag bol...spaghetti bolognaise," he added at Nathan's look. "She's...I mean, we fight sometimes, but she loves me. She always loves me."

"Does your father love you?"

He shrugged, looking back at the wires. "I guess. Haven't seen him in a while." Nathan shifted slightly and Clyde added, "He left us. Lives in Germany now."

"I'm sorry."

Clyde shrugged. "His loss, I guess."

"I haven't ever had a father. What is it like?"

"He was good when I was younger. He'd play with me, read to me at night and that."

"That sounds pleasant."

Mr Smith's screen lit up. "Diagnostics complete," he announced. "I am running at ninety one percent capacity. Many of the remaining repairs can be completed internally. I shall commence internal repairs."

"Can we still access you while you're doing that, Mr Smith?" Nathan asked.

"Some functions will be restricted, but I will be able to respond."

"Thank you. Go ahead."

Martha pushed open the attic door. "How's it going in here?"

"Mr Smith thinks he can handle most of the remaining repairs," Nathan told her. "He's working on it now."

"Good. Listen, we're going to stay here tonight and head for Mount Snowdon tomorrow. Clyde, if we haven't found your mother by then, we'll take you to your place to pick up some stuff and leave her a message, all right?"

"What?"

"Well, do you have anyone else to stay with?"

"No," he muttered. "I mean, some friends, but...no."

"Then you can come with us, and as soon as your mother's found we'll get you back together."

"Thanks," he said ungraciously.

"Yeah. Are you hungry? One of the guys is making a run."

"No. Thanks. We're all staying here?"

"Pick a room. There's three downstairs. Nathan?"

"I'm not tired, Dr Jones. I'd like to stay up here with Mr Smith and see how his repairs go."

"If you're doing that, you have to eat. And here..." She tossed him her radio. "No moving around on that ankle. What do you want to eat?"

"I don't mind."

"All right. Come on, Clyde."

"You're going to let him stay up there and work?" Clyde asked as Martha closed the door.

"Once he gets going on a project, it's hard to get him to stop. He'd probably sneak back up if I made him leave. At least this way I know where he is. Mickey or I, or one of the guards, will keep an eye on him."

"That's the other thing. Guards?"

Martha eyed him for a moment before opening the door to the nearest bedroom and ushering him in, sitting carefully on the bed. "Clyde, how much do you remember about the Bane invasion?"

"Nothing, really. Just the cleanup afterwards. I know most of it, Maria and Rani told me."

"About Nathan?"

"He was brainwashed. He let Wormwood into the base. Apparently I helped him with that."

Martha nodded. "He did that after he'd already been helping Torchwood. Wormwood hid triggers in his subconscious. He didn't know he was doing it."

Clyde frowned. "You think there's still triggers."

"Honestly? No, I don't. I think they'd have shown up by now; and Wormwood's dead, so she can't trigger anything herself, and the Bane invasion force died too. If there are triggers, no one alive knows what they are."

"Then why the guards?"

"My bosses don't share my opinions. Without the Doctor's protection they'd have taken Nathan apart to see how he works by now. As it is, as long as he's in UNIT he'll never be left alone."

"Then take him out of UNIT."

"And send him where? He can't exactly live out here, and the only other option is Torchwood. No. It's not fair, I know, but it is what it is." She rose to her feet. "Get some sleep. Someone will come get you in the morning."

"If I wake up I might go up and hang out in the attic."

"We'll look for you there, then. Night, Clyde."

* * *

Martha wasn't surprised to find Clyde in the attic the next morning. He wasn't talking, curled into one of the couches and studying his phone, but he looked up when she came in and returned her greeting cheerfully enough.

"Breakfast," she told him, glancing over at Nathan. "Nathan, how are you doing?"

"Morning," he said vaguely, watching Mr Smith's screen.

Martha folded her arms, leaning against the door, and a moment later he looked up. "Morning, Dr Jones."

"Morning, Nathan," she said, amused. "How's it going?"

"Ninety eight point seven. Mr Smith says he can finish off the rest himself."

"Good, but I meant you. How's your ankle?"

He glanced down at it, frowning. "It's a little sore. I think I could walk on it today."

"Don't try," she warned him. "I'll scan it back at Mount Snowdon and see where you're at. Clyde, can you help him downstairs?"

"Yeah." Clyde crossed the attic, getting an arm under Nathan's and hauling him to his feet. "Come on."

"Thanks." Nathan obediently hopped along beside Clyde, wobbling downstairs. Martha followed behind them, watching as they headed into the kitchen.

Mickey was piling food onto plates; he glanced up as they came in. "Shop's open and selling at three times the normal price," he reported. "Your UNIT guy just commandeered a bunch of stuff and handed it out in the car park. I like him."

"Nathan, do not repeat that," Martha ordered. "He'd get in trouble for abusing his station."

"Yes, Dr Jones," Nathan said obediently, taking the plate Mickey offered him and tucking in.

"Mickey, you don't repeat it either," she added, passing a plate to Clyde. "Tuck in."

* * *

They headed to Clyde's house once they'd eaten; Martha left one of her guys on guard until they could figure out what to do about Mr Smith. She didn't want to leave him to fall into disrepair again, but they couldn't just uproot him; apart from anything else, he had no reason to work for them.

No one had been into Clyde's house. He left a message on the house phone and Martha wrote a longer one, listing her UNIT number and explaining exactly what they were doing.

Clyde and Nathan had both vanished when she looked around. "Clyde took him upstairs," Mickey explained. "I told him to pack for a couple days. You think his mother's still out there?"

"UNIT's locked down most travel around the city. It's very possible she's stuck somewhere. We can't count it out, anyway."

Upstairs Nathan was leafing idly through a sketch pad. "Did you draw these?"

"Yeah." Clyde was rummaging through his wardrobe. "I like to draw."

"I'd like to be able to."

Clyde glanced over his shoulder. "Anyone can draw."

"I can do technical drawings. Blueprints and schematics. But not..." He held up the sketch pad. "Art. I don't understand it."

"I'll show you, if you like. Later, though. Aha." He unearthed a duffle, tossing it on the bed and starting to throw clothes at it.

"It's very good." He flipped the pad closed. "Do you want to bring this?"

"That's old. There's a new one around there somewhere. And a pouch of pencils." Nathan rummaged until he found them, adding them carefully to the pile of stuff on the bed. "So you don't draw. What do you do for fun?"

"Fun?" Nathan repeated. "I like to read."

"Is that it?"

"I have a television in my quarters, but it's not hooked up. It only works for DVDs. Dr Jones brings me new ones every now and then. TV shows, mostly. I like Black Hole High."

"That's, like, ten years old."

He shrugged. "I like it."

"You probably figure out all the physics stuff."

"It's not very accurate. But it's fun."

Clyde studied him for a moment before digging a GameBoy and pack of games off his shelf and adding them to the bag. "You might like those."

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Come on, I think that's everything." He gave Nathan a hand up, heading for the stairs.

"Ready?" Mickey asked, taking the bag as they reached the hall.

"No."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. You really are safer with us, though."

Clyde shrugged, shifting as Nathan swayed with the movement. "If you say so."

"Come on. Nathan, you need a hand?"

"Clyde is helping me, Mr Smith. Thank you."

"He must like you," Mickey stage whispered. "He only calls two other people by their first names, and they're girls."

"That makes me feel great. Thank you."

* * *

Clyde was silent during the drive to the base. The roads were mostly empty and the truck made good time, pulling into the base about an hour and a half after leaving Bannerman Road.

Clyde climbed out, helping Nathan to clamber out after him. Nathan had barely touched the road when someone barrelled into them, throwing her arms around him and incidentally around Clyde.

"Maria," Nathan said in surprise. "I thought you were in Mount Snowdon. What are you doing here?"

"They called Dad in to help with...something, I don't know." She let go, drawing back and noticing Clyde for the first time. "Hey. It's...Clyde, right?"

"Yeah. Hi, Maria." Glancing over her shoulder, he added, "Rani. You work here now?"

"Yeah."

"Hello, Rani," Nathan said.

"What's going on?" Maria asked, still watching Clyde.

"He helped me during the Dalek attack," Nathan explained. "His mother's missing, so Dr Jones brought him here with us until we can find her. Hello, Mr Jackson."

"Hi, Nathan. I thought you were in America. When did you get back?"

"Yesterday."

"He teleported in," Clyde said wisely. "Clyde Langer, sir."

"Alan Jackson. Nice to meet you. Been in the wars, Nathan?"

"I broke my ankle," he explained. "It's much better today."

"But he's still not supposed to walk on it," Clyde added. "What are we doing, Nathan?"

"We're waiting for our authorization and guards."

"Guards. Lovely." Glancing at the girls, he asked, "Where are your guards?"

"We're staff," Rani told him. "We don't rate guards."

"So what am I?"

"Lucky," Mickey said briskly, coming to join them and tossing a plastic pass to Nathan. "Infirmary, right now. Maria, I believe that's your domain. Martha will be down in a minute, don't let anyone touch him. Clyde, need you to come with me."

"Where to?"

"Just gonna show you around, tell you which parts of the base to stay out of." Catching Clyde's eye, he added, "That means you stay out of them, got it?"

Clyde ripped off a very sarcastic salute. "Sir, yes, sir."

"I'm going to pretend you actually meant that. Come on."

Clyde was slightly mollified to realise Mickey had a guard as well; the pair got a rapid tour, mostly consisting of "Don't go there, don't go there, you can go there, don't go there" and then Clyde was dropped in the infirmary.

"They're still finding you a guard," Mickey told him. "Stick with Nathan or one of the girls until you hear otherwise."

Clyde, though he'd never admit it, was a little awed at the base and just nodded, threading his way through the beds to where Maria was standing in the doorway of a small private room. The infirmary was crowded with staff and civilians who'd been injured in the attacks; Clyde did note he was about the only civilian allowed to move around.

Maria glanced up as he joined her. "Hey."

"Hey," he echoed absently, glancing into the room. Nathan, festooned with wires, was patiently answering a list of questions; Martha was reading them from a clipboard, nodding as he answered each one. "What are they doing?"

"Making sure his wiring's all in one piece. Martha gets to do it when he's done." She caught his frown and added, "No one's ever used the teleporter before they did, it wasn't designed for passengers, and Nathan reacts weirdly to things anyway." Turning to study him more fully, she added, "Are you hurt?"

"Me? Nah. I slammed into a wall during the attack, but I'm fine."

"Can I see?"

He blinked. "Why?"

"I'm on the med staff."

"What, really?"

She smacked his arm. "Yes, really! They don't keep us around for fun. Rani's on the operational side of things, and I work...well, the infirmary in Mount Snowdon. But I know enough to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine," he insisted, but he let her look at his shoulder and upper arm anyway. It really didn't hurt any more, but he had to admit, it was a fairly spectacular colour.

Nathan was waiting by the door when they were finished. "Dr Jones says you don't have a guard yet."

"Me? No. Short staffed, apparently. I'm supposed to stay with you for now. Are you finished?"

"Yes. I'm going to my lab."

"No," Maria announced.

"No?" Nathan repeated.

"You just got back, and I haven't seen you in ages, and Clyde wouldn't have anything to do in your lab. Also, it's lunch time. Let's go eat."

"I like that plan," Clyde said quickly.

"All right," Nathan agreed easily. "Where is Rani, Maria?"

"Not sure." Maria tapped the earpiece Clyde hadn't realised she was wearing. "Rani, are you online?...We're going for lunch. Come and meet us...Nathan and Clyde and me. Yeah? Ok." Tapping it again, she told them, "She's in the middle of something, but she'll meet us in a while."

Nathan nodded, glancing around. "Private Marks, we're going to the commissary."

The soldier he'd been addressing nodded. "I think it's meatloaf day."

"Oh, I changed my mind," Clyde said immediately.

"Don't worry. It's not like school food. It's actually pretty ok," Maria told him. "Edible, anyway. And the deserts are nice."

"All right, then, I'll trust you. Lead on."

Private Marks didn't join them, sitting at a nearby table where he could watch them without overhearing.

"Being Nathan's guard is really easy," Maria told Clyde. "It's dead boring, but it's easy. All he ever does is go from his room to his lab and back. And sometimes the commissary. Everyone knows it's easy and they all want to stay on his good side so they can keep doing it."

"Does he have a bad side?" Clyde asked softly. Nathan was currently listening avidly as one of the cooks told him about...something, Clyde couldn't hear it.

"Mmm. Yeah. It's hard to tell, because he's still polite and everything. But he does have favourite and unfavourite people."

Clyde poked at the remains of his meatloaf, which had actually been quite good. "He told me he doesn't understand about mothers."

"He doesn't, really. His wasn't much of a mother. How did that come up?"

"My mother's missing."

"I heard."

"He...I think he didn't know why it bothered me."

Maria was studying him; it made him uncomfortable, as though she could see everything he wasn't saying. "He's asking now," she said thoughtfully. "That's new."

"I don't..."

"Nathan was built rather than born. You knew that, right?" At his nod, she continued, "He was built at the age he is now, give or take a year, and Mrs Wormwood didn't give him any human knowledge. It took us a while to get him to tell us when he didn't understand something. I'm glad he's doing it now. Did it upset you?"

"No. It didn't upset me," Clyde lied. Maria eyed him again and he had the feeling she knew he'd lied, but Nathan came to join them before she could call him on it. For some reason he was carrying two cups; Clyde reached for one experimentally and Nathan moved it out of his reach almost absently.

"So do you live on base?" he asked, giving up. "Maria," he clarified when Nathan frowned at him. "I know you do. Or, on a base, anyway."

"Yeah. Rani and I live on base with my dad."

"All the time?"

She nodded. "Dad works for them. Computer security. We went to school off base, Rani and me, but they're piloting this home school program for military kids in UNIT, so now the two of us and half a dozen other kids who live on base all study together. Regular lessons four hours a day, and then some aspect of UNIT operations. It only works because Mount Snowdon isn't a front line base; they do training and stuff there. The other bases are all constantly on a war time footing, but they deliberately keep Mount Snowdon. They've been sending any UNIT agent with kids there for a while now."

"This isn't Mount Snowdon," Clyde pointed out.

"No. They brought us here when the attack ended; they needed Dad to...do something. Mount Snowdon's been decimated to help out with this anyway, there's no classes right now."

"Do you go to class, then, Nathan?"

Nathan glanced up from his plate. "No. I learn in the labs, from the scientists."

"Sounds way more fun, to be honest. What about fun?"

"It's still a military base," Maria pointed out.

"I have a TV," Nathan offered.

"Not here," Maria reminded him. To Clyde, she added, "There's a rec room, but we're not allowed in it on this base. Back at Mount Snowdon they've got a kid's rec room, video games and things."

"What about New York?"

Nathan shrugged. "I suppose the soldiers had a rec room. I didn't use it."

"So how did you relax? Besides watching Black Hole High."

"Nathan works to relax," Rani said lightly, dropping into the seat beside Clyde. "Or else reads big fat textbooks."

"I like fiction," Nathan said mildly. "Hello, Rani."

"Hi, Nathan."

"What kind of fiction?" Clyde asked.

"Everything."

"He's very undemanding. As long as it's got words. In any language he's ever heard."

Maria made a face at Rani. "How's work?"

Clyde lost track of the conversation as they talked about UNIT for a while. He tuned back in as she said "And the civilians aren't helping. I know they're not used to this, but they're really making it so much harder."

"Is the city still locked down?" Nathan asked curiously.

"Yeah. There's still bits of Dalek all over the place and they don't want anyone getting their hands on them. They could still be dangerous. So there's people stuck where they are unless they need medical attention or something."

"Does UNIT know who's where?" Maria asked. "They must be taking names, right?"

"They are," Rani agreed. "But the comm networks keep going down. Every time we get one up people start making calls and it goes right back down. So matching people up is pretty hard, and we still don't know how many died. I mean, we have some bodies, but the people the Daleks killed are just gone. We might never find some of them."

"I wonder if I can go back to Bannerman Road," Nathan said abruptly. Glancing up at their silence, he added sheepishly, "Sorry, Rani. I didn't mean to interrupt."

She shrugged resignedly. "What's on Bannerman Road? I thought it was pretty well trashed."

"Mr Smith."

"Who's Mr Smith?"

"He's Sarah Jane's computer." Maria leaned forward, eyes bright. "Is he still active?"

"He needed some repairs, but he was mostly operational." Nathan launched into a detailed description of Mr Smith's capabilities and how he'd been helpful during the Dalek invasion.

Clyde risked letting go of the edge of his seat. His fingers were cramping from hanging on so tightly, and he flexed them a couple of times.

Rani interrupted Nathan with a laugh, shaking her head, and turned to ask Maria something. Nathan shrugged good naturedly, turning back to his plate.

His gaze flickered over Clyde's and he blinked in surprise. *He did that on purpose,* he thought dazedly. *He knew that was upsetting me and he deliberately distracted her.*

Clyde wasn't sure what to think about that. He must have been fairly obvious if Nathan was picking up on it, but the girls didn't seem to have realised.

Martha slid into the seat on the other side of Nathan, absently taking the cup he slid towards her. *That explains the second cup,* Clyde thought with a grin.

"Morning, girls."

"Afternoon," Maria told her. "It's nearly one o'clock."

"Is it?" Martha winced.

"Debriefing?" Nathan guessed, watching her.

"Yeah. It's not finished, either, I have to go back soon." She took a sip from the cup, grinning at him. "They want you back in the lab quick as you can. They're hoping you can come up with something that'll actually hurt a Dalek."

"Yes, Dr Jones."

"He doesn't have to debrief?" Clyde asked.

Martha shook her head. "He'll write it for us. You, on the other hand, I need."

"I don't know anything. I didn't even see the Daleks, not really. Just flying overhead."

"You still have to come, I'm afraid."

"They don't bite," Maria told him.

"Usually," Rani added, grinning at his look.

"Come on." Martha drained her cup, rising to her feet. "Private Marks, you stay with Nathan until I tell you otherwise. Nathan, I'll be along. See you later, girls." She headed out of the commissary; Clyde blinked, hurrying to catch up with her. "What's going to happen?" he asked.

"It's just a debrief, and they don't really think you know anything. They're just covering themselves. You'll probably have to sign some secrecy papers."

"They've still got them on file since the last time. And I meant in a more general sense."

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Does the world just keep going?"

"Always has before. We've been getting attacked for a while now, Clyde. This was bigger than most, but it's just another attack in the end."

"You look tired," Clyde murmured, unable to think of anything else to combat that world weary tone.

Martha laughed softly. "Yeah. It's been a long couple of days." He halted outside a set of doors. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Clyde took a breath, setting his shoulders. "Bring it on."


	4. Chapter 4

Martha was right, it turned out.

Clyde gave his statement to a completely disinterested clerk. He carefully didn't mention Mr Smith, instead referring vaguely to 'a computer'. He could feel Martha watching him, but she didn't comment or correct him.

The clerk asked for clarification on two points, had him sign the statement and a pile of secrecy papers, and then turned him loose. Martha had him escorted to the lab; Private Marks was leaning against the wall near the door inside, and he nodded when Clyde came in.

Nathan was standing over something on a desk. Clyde drew closer, studying it curiously; he shuddered when he realised it was part of a Dalek's casing.

"Can you write this down for me, Clyde?" Nathan asked without looking up.

Clyde glanced around, picking up a clipboard and pen. "Shoot." Nathan glanced up, frowning, and he added, "Go ahead, I'm ready."

"You shouldn't say 'shoot' around here unless you mean it," Nathan told him, looking back at his work.

"I'll keep that in mind."

He started calling out a series of numbers and letters, and Clyde started writing them down. Nathan was obviously used to this; he went slowly enough for Clyde to keep up, he explained the more unusual symbols, he told him when to start a new line or otherwise change how he was writing, and he stopped whenever Clyde fell behind to let him catch up.

"What is this we're doing?" Clyde asked during a brief break in the stream of letters and numbers.

"We're noting how different compounds affect the Dalek skin."

"And how do they affect it?"

"Not much. It's very strong." He sighed, rubbing at his eyes. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

They kept going for a while longer. Eventually Clyde declared, "I need a break. My eyes are starting to cross. Can we stop for a bit?"

"All right," Nathan agreed, pulling the sheet of paper towards himself and scanning the numbers.

"So the brain thing," Clyde said curiously. "How does it work?"

"I don't understand the question."

"Your brain thing, the one that makes UNIT want you so bad. How does it work?"

"Oh." He looked up from the sheet. "I remember everything I see. And I...when you see something, your brain tells you what it is. Mine does that too, but faster than yours. I make connections quicker, I can run through whole equations in my head very quickly and accurately."

"So why are we writing it out?"

"Looking at it makes it easier to make the connections." His fingers twitched towards the sheet but he didn't look away from Clyde.

"Is that it?"

He shrugged. "My hand eye coordination and reflexes are faster than humans, but not by much. It's the brain thing, really."

Clyde frowned suddenly. "You remember everything?"

"Everything I see."

"Isn't that dangerous? There's only so much room in a brain, right?"

"There's more room in mine than there is in yours. Sorry," he added at Clyde's look. "I meant yours in general, not yours particularly."

"That makes it better," Clyde muttered.

"How does the art thing work?"

"What?"

Nathan smiled faintly. "The art thing. I can't do it. But I should be able to; it's just reproducing light and shadow and lines."

"It's not just that," Clyde protested. "It's...have you ever seen art?"

"Yours. And I've seen pictures of the famous ones. Mona Lisa, Sunflowers, the Scream."

"Art's about feelings. A really good artist can make you feel something when you look at his art, make you feel what he was feeling when he drew or painted or sculpted it. A blueprint's useful but it's not anything like art." He considered for a moment. "Can you do without me for a few minutes?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Go on with your work. I'll be over here." He picked up the clipboard, switching to a fresh sheet, and moved to a seat in the corner of the room.

Nathan frowned, watching him for a moment before turning back to his work. He glanced at him a couple of times, but after a few minutes he was absorbed in his work and seemed to have forgotten Clyde completely.

* * *

It took about half an hour before Clyde was happy; working in pen was harder than he'd expected and he had to plan much further ahead. Finally, though, he was finished, and he came back to join Nathan.

"Just a minute." Nathan finished up whatever he was doing and turned to him. "Ready?"

"No. I mean, yes. Hang on. Look at this." He flipped the clipboard around so Nathan could see it.

It wasn't a work of art, not even close. It showed Nathan leaning over his desk, absorbed in what he was doing, half frowning at it. The rest of the lab was half sketched in; Marks was a shadowy presence in one corner, but the rest of the room was empty.

"I look lonely," Nathan murmured, quietly enough that Marks couldn't hear him. "And all alone."

"Yeah," Clyde agreed softly. "You do."

"Is this art?"

"Did it make you feel something?"

Nathan flipped the page abruptly, pulling a fresh one over the top. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Clyde took the clipboard back, settling at the desk. "I'm ready."

They worked for a while longer before Nathan glanced at a clock. "It's late. You should get some rest."

"So should you. You didn't sleep last night either."

"I will. I want to wait for Dr Jones, but I will. Private Marks, can you have someone take Clyde to eat something and then his quarters, please?" Marks nodded, talking to his radio for a moment.

"And you're going to eat?" Clyde said pointedly.

"Yes. I'm going to eat. Thank you for your help, Clyde."

"Yeah."

"Don't forget your picture."

"That's for you. Enjoy." He glanced up as the door opened, grinning briefly at Nathan before leaving with his escort.

* * *

Rani took a breath to steel herself before entering Nathan's lab. He was bent over his desk, scribbling something on a sheet of paper, but she knew he knew she was there. Nathan always knew who was around him.

"Private Marks, I need to talk to Nathan for a minute," she said politely. "Can you wait outside?"

"You can leave the door open," Nathan added without looking up. Marks glanced at him as though surprised before stepping into the corridor, leaving the door open a crack.

"Leave the door open? Really?" Rani said in surprise.

Nathan glanced up briefly. "In New York they never left me alone. They don't care so much about the Doctor over there. My night guard stayed in my room with me."

Rani blinked, rocking lightly on her heels. "I'm sorry."

"Why? It wasn't your fault."

"Doesn't it make you angry?"

"Can I help you with something, Rani?"

It was the rudest he'd ever been with her, and she frowned. "Yes. I wanted to talk to you."

"What would you like to talk about?"

"When we were in the commissary, earlier. I saw you."

"I saw you too. We were across the table from each other."

"No, not...I wanted to thank you. I didn't think...I should have known not to talk about that in front of Clyde."

Nathan flinched, looking back at his work. "I don't know what you mean."

Rani stepped forward, touching his hand and startling him into meeting her eyes. "You saw he was uncomfortable and you changed the topic so he could relax. That was very kind of you."

"It wasn't anything."

"It was very human," she said quietly. "That was empathy, Nathan. You know that, don't you?"

"It wasn't anything," he repeated, taking a step back and looking back at his work. "I have to work, Rani. They want this finished."

"It's late. You're going to start making mistakes soon..."

"I don't..."

"Yes, you do, mistakes are human too. Come with me and get something to eat and then get some sleep. Private Marks will tell Martha; she could be in debriefs for a long while more, anyway. Mickey's still in there and he's not even UNIT."

"Are you lonely?" Nathan blurted.

Rani frowned. "What?"

He fidgeted for a moment before pushing the top sheet of the clipboard aside to show her the picture. "Clyde drew it. Today. Just sitting here. And he – I look lonely. He thought I was lonely and he drew it like that, and...are you lonely?"

Rani took a deep breath. She and Nathan weren't friends – she'd never been able to forget his Bane-induced betrayal of them, even though he'd saved them afterwards – but she knew him well enough to know that if she brushed this off now, he'd never bring it up to anyone again. "Sometimes. I like the Jacksons. They're very good to me. And the work with UNIT is – well, it's interesting, anyway, even if it's not what I want to do. But I miss my parents. I miss my home. Yeah, sometimes I'm very lonely." She turned the picture to get a better look at it. "Are you?"

"I don't understand lonely," he said softly. "My life is what it is. It's always going to be this. UNIT will never let me go, not if they have any choice. I'm too useful. But they'll never trust me either. There's too much of my mother in me."

"There is _nothing_ of her in you," Rani said firmly. "Nothing, Nathan, you're nothing like her. I always knew that."

"You don't even like me," he pointed out.

"Right, so I have no reason to lie to you and certainly not about this. She was evil. She wasn't just trying to save her people; she enjoyed hurting people. She enjoyed hurting you and she had no reason at all to do that; it wasn't as if you could tell her no anyway. You're nothing like that, I've seen you go out of your way to keep from hurting people. That's why you never complain, isn't it?"

Nathan shuddered, turning away from her. "I have to work."

"You have to rest..."

"Good night, Rani."

She shook her head. "Sorry. As an official UNIT staffer, I outrank you." Raising her voice, she added, "Private Marks!"

"That's not fair," Nathan protested.

"I know. Sorry. Private Marks, Nathan needs to get some rest now. Please escort him to quarters."

Marks saluted, glancing at Nathan. "Coming?"

"I have to tidy this away. It's dangerous to leave it out."

Rani nodded. "I'll help you."

* * *

Clyde was surprised to realise he'd slept well. There was a soldier in the corridor outside his quarters; when he asked, he was escorted to the commissary and then to Nathan's lab.

"Did you get any sleep?" he asked, sliding onto the seat beside Nathan's workspace.

"Yes. Rani came a little while after you left and she made me leave."

"Good for Rani. I knew I liked her." He smiled at the look on Nathan's face. "Did you eat this morning?"

"Yes. Private Stevens said his orders were to make sure I ate before I started working."

"Good. At least someone's watching out for you."

Nathan made a face at him. "Are you going to help?"

"Yeah, what would you like me to do?"

They worked for a while. Clyde was getting the hang of Nathan's notation system, and the work went faster than it had the day before.

He was about to suggest stopping for lunch when the lab door opened. Nathan glanced up, blinked, and slid off his stool to stand beside it. Clyde skewed around in his seat without standing, dimly noticing that the soldier in the corner – presumably Private Stevens – had snapped to attention.

"Well?" the man in the door demanded.

"I haven't found anything yet, sir," Nathan said politely.

"This is important."

"Yes, sir. I've been working on it. But I haven't found anything that can hurt them yet."

"The Doctor destroyed them. It must be possible."

"The Doctor's an alien," Clyde said, just loudly enough to be heard.

"Who are you?" the man demanded.

"Clyde is under Dr Jones' care, General," Nathan said, taking half a step as though to hide Clyde. "He's been helping me."

"Is she picking up strays again?" The General snorted. "We need progress on this, Nathan."

"Yes, sir."

The General turned on his heel, striding away and letting the door bang closed behind him. Clyde blinked at the space. "Pleasant guy. Who is he?"

"General in charge of the base," Nathan said absently, staring unseeingly at his bench. "It's his orders to find something to stop the Daleks."

"Nathan," Clyde said quietly. "You're fourteen."

"A year."

"Either way. You can't possibly be the sole help for the world. Don't they have anyone else working on this?"

"I don't know. If they do they haven't told me."

"Well, that's stupid. How do you know you aren't duplicating what they're doing?"

Stevens stirred. "No one else is working on this at the moment. There's no other scientists on base, this isn't a research post."

"Right," Clyde muttered. "Of course it isn't."

"Clyde. It really doesn't matter. This is my job, it's what I do."

"This what you did in New York?"

"I liked New York," Nathan said mildly, turning back to his work. "They liked me."

"Really?"

"They had you guarded twenty four seven," Stevens reminded him. "We got the memos over here."

"Yes, but I liked my guards. They were friendly. And Sanchez didn't want to be bothered with me, so he never gave me any work or anything. I was working directly under Dr Jones."

"Medical research?" Clyde said in surprise.

Nathan shrugged, smiling. "Medical's as easy to memorise as anything else."

"But this is better?"

"This is much better."

Clyde blinked, following his gaze to the desk. Nathan had assembled some kind of laser and they'd been testing various strengths and lenses on the Dalek armour.

It was melting.


	5. Chapter 5

Maria found Clyde sitting on a desk at one side of the lab, idly sketching. Nathan was carefully explaining something to a man she thought might be the General's aide.

"Hey," she said quietly, boosting herself up beside Clyde.

"I think he's moving up the chain," Clyde said without looking up. "Everyone who comes in seems to be more important than the last one."

"He doesn't have much further to go. That's the General's aide."

"Yeah, I noticed that the guy who tried to bully him earlier hasn't bothered to come and see his success."

"Well, he's a soldier, not a scientist. He wouldn't understand what Nathan was telling him. That's why he has aides."

"Maria, *I* can understand what Nathan's telling him. He's good at making sense."

Maria shrugged, leaning over to study his sketch. "Huh."

"Huh, what?"

"Rani said you drew him lonely. That's not lonely. He looks really happy there."

"He is happy there. Look at him."

Maria glanced across the room again. Nathan was smiling as he pointed something out; the aide nodded, answering softly, and both laughed.

"He likes people," Clyde said quietly. "He likes being around people. He told me he made friends with his guards, Maria."

"He makes friends with pretty much everyone," she said distantly. "Most people who spend any time with him like him well enough. It's the ones who never come near him are the problem."

"Like the General?"

"Like the General," she agreed with a sigh. "He doesn't realise...he sees the things Nathan can do and he thinks, Great, a weapon. Something useful. Nathan's medical and intelligence tests just about classify him as not human, so they don't have to worry about it."

"He's not?"

Maria shrugged. "He doesn't get sick. He's faster than any athlete, he's smarter than any professor. It's easy for them, when they never actually see him, to pretend he isn't human."

"You know, the more I hear about UNIT..."

Rani skidded in through the door, glancing around before coming to join them. "Clyde, come with me."

"Why?"

She bit her lip before answering, "We might have found your mother."

"What do you mean, you *think* you've found her?" Clyde demanded. "It's her or it isn't."

Maria glanced over as movement caught her eye. Nathan had stopped what he was doing to watch them; she shook her head slightly and he turned back to his work. She noticed, though, that he was standing at an angle where he'd be able to see them more easily.

"There's a woman," Rani explained. "She's on her way in now. She's unconscious and has been since the attack, and she's got no ID. But she matches the description and a sales assistant thought she signed her receipt with a C name, and...she thought Lander."

"My mum's writing," Clyde murmured, sounding vaguely dazed. "She's coming in?"

"Should be here soon. Martha sent me to get you. Come on." She touched Clyde's arm, guiding him gently towards the door.

Maria turned back towards Nathan and found him at her shoulder, apparently finished with the General's aide. "Can we go with him?" he asked. "Would we be in the way?"

"We can stay out of the way. Are you finished?"

"Yes. I have to turn in schematics, but that won't take long."

Maria touched his arm, waiting for him to turn to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just thought we should go with him."

"In case it is her, or in case it isn't?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't work on me," she informed him. "I know you're brighter than you let on."

Nathan glanced pointedly around the lab, and she shook her head. "No, that's brains. That's not the same thing. If you're finished, we can go."

* * *

They caught up to Clyde and Rani outside the infirmary; Clyde was standing very still, arms wrapped around himself, looking distantly down the corridor. Mickey was leaning against the wall nearby and Rani was murmuring quietly to him.

"Hello, Mr Smith," Nathan said politely, pausing beside them. "Has your debrief finished?"

"Yeah, they got tired of trying to trick me into telling them how to beat the Doctor."

"UNIT don't want to beat the Doctor, that's Torchwood," Maria told him.

"Nah, Torchwood love him now."

"Either way, UNIT are the Doctor's allies."

"Are they."

The doors at the other end of the corridor opened; Clyde jerked, letting his arms fall and taking one step towards them. Martha was at the head of the little group, reading a clipboard and snapping orders to the people pushing the stretcher.

She pulled them to a halt when she reached Clyde. "She doesn't have ID," she reminded him. "We don't know if this is her." Clyde nodded jerkily, taking a step forward, and she moved to let him see.

Maria was holding her breath. Clyde had his back to them and they couldn't see his face, but after a moment he reached out to the still figure on the stretcher.

Maria slipped past Mickey and took the clipboard from Martha, scanning it quickly. Nothing life threatening, she noted with relief, although the lack of consciousness was worrying, especially two days after the initial injury. But the woman was still alive and reacting slightly to stimulus, which was a really good sign. "Clyde," she said softly, touching his arm.

It took a minute for him to register her; when he looked up, his eyes were bright with tears. "We have to do some tests," she told him, drawing him to one side of the corridor. He turned to watch the stretcher continue to the infirmary and she went on quickly, "It doesn't look like there's anything serious wrong with her. Tests, we need the results, but it looks good."

"Thank you," he said, monotone.

She let him go and he went after the group; Mickey glanced sharply at her before following him. Rani trotted down the corridor to her, Nathan on her heels.

"What's going on?" she hissed.

"It's Carla Langer." Maria felt light-headed suddenly; she barely registered Nathan catching her arm, holding her steady. "She needs tests, but it looks good. She's not badly hurt."

"Good." Rani pushed her towards the nearest chair. "Take a deep breath. Are you all right?"

"Yeah." She took a breath, feeling the light-headedness recede. "Sorry. I guess I didn't realise I was that worried for him."

"Why?" Nathan asked curiously.

Rani grimaced, looking away. Maria said carefully, "I lost my mother in the invasion, but I still have my dad. But Clyde's father lives in Germany, if he's still alive. If Carla had died Clyde wouldn't have anyone left. I know, a little, how that would feel..." Rani pushed to her feet suddenly, stalking down the corridor, and Maria finished quietly, "It's not a nice feeling and I'm glad it didn't happen. I wouldn't want him to have to deal with it."

Nathan nodded slowly and Maria continued, "Pretend that Martha had been hurt in the Dalek invasion. That you didn't know where she was, you'd been brought back here without her, and you didn't know when she'd be back. Pretend she never came back and you were left here. Maybe with us, or maybe just being sent from base to base to help with things, but no more Martha."

"I wouldn't like that. I think – I would be lonely, without her. I like Dr Jones very much."

"Yeah. Do you understand? My dad's still here but..."

"On Bannerman Road, he wasn't there. Not really. That's what you were thinking of. Not really your mother, or not just her."

Maria drew a shaky breath. "It shouldn't surprise me when you do that, but it always does."

"What?"

"Insight," she said vaguely. "Nathan, you have to be careful what you say to Clyde now, all right? He's still going to be upset until his mother recovers."

"She's alive."

"Yes, but we don't know what's wrong with her. That's nearly worse; before we found her, he could pretend to himself that she was fine, she just couldn't get to him. Now he knows, really knows, that she's hurt."

Nathan nodded, taking it in. "Should I be careful around Rani as well?"

Maria glanced down the corridor; Rani was standing just out of earshot, watching them. "Yeah. I think so. I didn't mean to upset her, but I have."

"Her mother saved her life."

"That's a consolation on paper, but it doesn't actually mean anything to her. Not on the bad days."

"And this is a bad day."

"It is now, yeah." She squeezed his arm, getting up to follow Rani.

"I'm fine," the other girl said before Maria could speak. "You just surprised me. It's fine."

"I'm sorry," Maria said anyway.

Rani nodded. "It's not...I like living with you and your dad. But he's not my dad."

"I understand."

They glanced up as Mickey came out of the infirmary; Nathan stood, coming to join them.

"It looks good," Mickey told them. "She's responding to stimulus and the scans don't show any lasting damage. She still has to wake up, but it looks like she will wake up."

"That's great," Maria said, relieved.

"Thank you," Nathan added. "Can we help at all?"

"Doesn't look like Clyde's going to leave her, so something to eat in a while might be an idea. Right now, no, I don't think you can do anything."

"Are you sure?" When Mickey nodded, Nathan turned to Maria. "I have to go and finish those schematics. Can you do me a favour?"

* * *

Clyde stood, stretching his back to try and ease the stiffness. He'd been sitting by his mother's bed for a while now; occasionally Martha or one of the nurses would come in, check some of the machines attached to her, say something vaguely positive and wander back out again. Martha had tried a couple of times to have him leave, to eat or just to get some fresh air, but he'd refused and so far they hadn't tried to force him.

"You're going to freak when you wake up, Mum," he murmured. "UNIT are taking care of you, just because I happened to be crossing Bannerman Road when the attack started. Guess you'll be glad I didn't listen to you, huh? I know you don't like it when I use that road. I'm starting to see your point, to be honest. Something's going on there.

"I didn't tell you much about the Bane invasion, did I? Well, I met some kids while I was with Torchwood, before they found you, and they're all here. Something about aliens just seems to call them out of the woodwork."

"We do turn up in odd places," Maria agreed from the door.

Clyde winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean...I think I'm tired."

"Not surprised." She came in, sliding a tray onto the table by his mother's bed. "Eat something." She lifted the clipboard from the end of the bed, studying it.

"Can you really read that?" Clyde asked, picking up a can from the tray and taking a drink.

"It's not that hard. Reading the handwriting's the tough bit. Martha's pretty good that way, she has nice clear writing." She slid the clipboard back into place. "Nathan sent these, he thought you might want them." She put his sketchpad and pencil tin onto the table. "In case you're bored."

"Thanks," Clyde murmured. "Thank him for me, too."

"He'd have come, but he doesn't...he knows he's not very good at feelings. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and upset you."

"He does better than he thinks he does."

"You know that and I know that," Maria agreed. "Try getting him to believe it."

Clyde reached for the sketchpad, flipping idly through the pages. Maria leaned forward to watch; Clyde slowed so she could see. They weren't anything special, these pictures, mostly studies of whatever had caught his eye; a flower, a bird, kids in the playground near the school. There was one less than flattering picture of the principal at his school, too.

"They're good," Maria murmured.

"My art teacher thinks I have talent, so she keeps giving me extra work. That doesn't really seem fair to me." He flipped to a new page and started drawing.

Maria watched as the lines resolved into a shape she recognised. "I thought you didn't see them that closely."

"I didn't," Clyde agreed, shading in one side of the Dalek. "Mr Smith had all kinds of files and stuff while we were stuck in the attic. He showed us. I think he was trying to distract us, but it wasn't working very well."

"Distracting you from the invasion by showing you the invaders? I bet that wasn't working very well. Why didn't you ask him to show you something else?"

"Nathan was enjoying it." Clyde lifted one shoulder in a shrug, turning the pad to reach a troublesome corner. "And I wasn't...he knew Dr Jones was right in the middle of everything. I thought my mum was at home, I wasn't really worried."

"Neither was Nathan. He doesn't think like that. He doesn't worry about the future or dwell on the past."

"Ever?"

"Not much. He knows, sort of, that something could happen to Martha and he'd probably be left in UNIT's care. He just doesn't worry about it." She smiled faintly. "It's not efficient." Smile fading, she added, "He might ask you about it. I'm sorry, I told him not to."

Clyde shrugged, turning the pad right way up again. "It doesn't matter." Looking up to catch her eye, he added softly, "She's here, Maria."

"Yeah." Maria smiled at him. "She is." She rose to her feet. "I have to go, but I'll be back later on, or Rani. Someone. And there's nurses around if you need anything."

"Thanks," Clyde murmured, bending over the sketch pad again.

* * *

He'd been talking quietly to his mother for a while, filling in the fine details on the sketch, when he looked up to see Nathan hovering uncertainly in the doorway.

"I brought you something," Nathan offered, holding up a chocolate bar. "I thought Maria would have brought healthy stuff."

Clyde grinned, waving him in. "How'd you get that on the base?"

"One of the guards owed me a favour." He caught Clyde's look and grinned. "I figured out the odds in a horse race and he won."

"Nice to have the place figured out." He broke the bar in half, offering it back to Nathan.

"You think I don't like it here," Nathan noted.

"It's occurred to me, yeah."

"I don't like the General. But UNIT isn't bad. I can learn here, and work here. Dr Jones is here. Maria, and Rani."

"Yeah, but this isn't a home, Nathan."

"It's what I have. The monitor's changing."

"What?"

Nathan gestured to one of the monitors, stepping out of the room briefly. Martha was with him when he came back in; she glanced over the monitors, frowning. "Clyde, can you back up for a minute?"

"Is..."

"I'm not sure. Just back up, please."

Nathan caught Clyde's arm, tugging lightly until he backed out of Martha's way.

Clyde watched as Martha studied the monitors and clipboard, making quick notes. Nathan was still holding his arm, watching every bit as intently.

"What's going on?" Clyde whispered.

"Don't know."

"Nathan..."

"This isn't the kind of medicine I studied. It doesn't look bad, that's all I can tell." He studied the monitors. "It looks good, in fact. Blood pressure's fine, breathing's fine, heart rate's fine...it looks good, Clyde."

"Really?"

Martha glanced over her shoulder, smiling faintly. "Clyde, come here."

"What?"

Nathan's grip shifted to his shoulder, gently propelling him forward. Clyde stumbled up to stand next to Martha, heart beating so fast he could feel it, and looked down at his mother.

She met his gaze.

Nathan tightened his grip as Clyde swayed, leaning over the bed. "Mum."

"Hi, Clydey," she murmured. "You all right?"

"Yeah, Mum, I'm fine. Are you?"

"Yeah. I'm tired, though."

Clyde glanced at Martha before answering. "That's all right, Mum, you can go back to sleep. I'll be here."

"Promise?"

"Right here."

Nathan hooked a foot around the nearest chair, dragging it over in time for Clyde to sink into it, one hand wrapped tightly around his mother's. "Right here. Promise. Ok? Get some sleep."

"Mmm. You too. You're thin."

He laughed softly, raising their hands so he could kiss hers. Nathan looked away, blinking.

When he looked back Mrs Langer had drifted back to sleep. Martha was already saying, "It's fine, this is fine. She's going to be fine now. That was what we needed, we needed her to wake up and she's done it. Nathan," she added in exactly the same tone, "get a drink of water for Clyde, and wherever you got that chocolate, get him another one."

"Yes, Dr Jones," he said obediently, slipping out into the infirmary.

* * *

Mickey was lounging on one of the beds; catching Nathan's look, he said, "Just waiting for Martha. Everything ok?"

"Mrs Langer woke up." Nathan found a jug and cup on a trolley, carrying them to the nearest tap. "Can you bring this in? I have to get something from the lab."

"Yeah. Anything wrong?"

"No. It's fine. Thank you."

"I'll go," Private Marks offered. "I know where they are. You stay here, though."

"I will. Thank you." Nathan smiled at him, giving the jug to Mickey anyway.

Clyde didn't look up when they came back in. Nathan filled the cup, pressing it into his hands, and nodded when he absently drank.

"It's ok?" Mickey was asking quietly.

"Yeah, it's fine," Martha agreed. "She needs a little time to recover, but she's going to be fine."

"Happy ending, then." Eyes distant, he murmured, "Everybody lives."

"Well, those two, anyway."

Private Marks stuck his head in, brandishing a fistful of chocolate, and Martha shook her head. "You're supposed to be on a diet, you know."

"Medical diets are boring." Nathan retrieved the bars, grinning at Private Marks, and unwrapped one, putting it down in front of Clyde. He didn't react for a moment; Nathan waited patiently, and eventually Clyde took a bite without seeming to realise he was doing it.

Martha smiled approvingly when Nathan looked at her. "Good. Don't eat all those at once, and I never saw them. Can you stay here? I have to go and check something out."

"Yes, Dr Jones."

"Thank you. I won't be long, and there's a nurse outside if you need anything." She handed him her clipboard, steering Mickey out. He grinned, snatching a chocolate bar on the way.

Nathan settled himself at the side of the room, turning to a blank sheet of paper on the clipboard and starting to work on a new idea he'd had for a power system. He worked on it for a while, glancing up every now and then. Clyde didn't move except to refill his glass, watching his mother sleep.

Eventually Clyde shifted, looking around. "Hey," he said, voice slightly hoarse. "Where is everyone?"

"They left," Nathan said.

"I can see that, mate. We really need to work on that."

He smiled faintly. "Dr Jones had to go and do something, and she took Mr Smith with her. The girls haven't been here since earlier. I don't know where they are."

"See, that was better." He stood, stretching and walking around the room. "What are you working on?"

"Power systems." Nathan obligingly tilted the clipboard to show him.

"Really?"

"A lot of the problems came from the Daleks knocking out the power supply. If we had better systems, that wouldn't happen."

"If you say so. Look, Nathan, can you stay here for a minute? I've got to go to the little boys room."

Nathan glanced at the bed. "You want me to stay?"

"Please."

"All right." Crossing to the door, he added, "Private Marks, can you show Clyde to the bathroom, please?"

"Don't you ever sleep?" Clyde asked, following him. "You're always on duty."

Nathan didn't hear whatever Marks answered, but it made Clyde laugh softly. Nathan let the door close again, turning to study the bed.

He rescued his clipboard, but it seemed strange to sit so far away from the bed, so he slid carefully into the seat beside the bed. He leaned back over the clipboard, working carefully on it.

Clyde returned a few minutes later and Nathan gratefully retired to his corner. They sat in silence for a while more before Mrs Langer stirred, starting to wake.

Nathan called the nurse and waited while she talked quietly with Clyde and Mrs Langer. After a while she came back towards him.

"I'm throwing Clyde out for the night. It's late. Take him to get something to eat and then to his quarters, all right?"

"Yes, ma'am," Nathan agreed. Clyde was scowling, but he didn't fight when Nathan gestured him out.

* * *

Rani glanced up as the commissary doors opened. It had been quiet up until now, only a couple of off duty soldiers sitting in a corner together.

Clyde came to join her while Nathan went to investigate what was available this late at night. "Hey. How's your mom?" she asked, gathering together the wreckage from her snack.

Clyde smiled. "She's fine. She woke up, we got to talk and everything. She's sleeping again now but she'll be fine."

"Good. I'm glad."

He picked up one of the wrappers littering the table, studying it. "Does he give these to everyone?"

"Pretty much. Anyone who looks like they need it."

"What's the point of smuggling them on the base, then?"

Nathan slid into a seat opposite him, carefully lowering a tray. "There isn't much this late," he said apologetically.

"It's fine," Clyde assured him, taking one of the bowls of soup.

Rani wasn't surprised to realise there was one for her as well. "I ate already."

Nathan shrugged. "Doesn't matter. One of us will have it. I thought you might like to join in."

Sighing, she reached for the bowl, scowling when she caught Clyde's look. "You try saying no to him."

"Oh, no, I'm staying out of this." He deliberately slurped the next spoonful, grinning cheerfully at her. "Where's Maria?"

"Asleep. I think. In our quarters, anyway."

"Why are you up?"

She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. I didn't want to keep her awake, so I came down here to read my book and drink something."

Clyde nodded. "How's that working out for you? Are you tired yet?"

Rani suppressed the fleeting anger, reminding herself that he was probably trying to distract himself. "Not really, no." Nathan was frowning into his bowl and she told him, "It happens sometimes. It's nothing. One night without sleep isn't going to hurt me."

"Insomnia's a serious..."

"It's not insomnia. I just sometimes amn't tired. It's nothing." He kept frowning at his bowl and she sighed, scrubbing a hand over her face. "Look, if it keeps up I'll go talk to Martha. But it's nothing, really."

Nathan nodded without looking up and Clyde grinned. "Mate, you've got to teach me to do that."

"Sorry, Clyde, it wouldn't work for you," Rani told him.

"Why not?"

"I don't care what you think about me."

"Oi!"

* * *

Clyde followed Nathan through the corridors a while later. He was tired, now; the day of worrying about his mother had worn him out and the corridors were starting to swim around him.

"This is your room," Nathan told him, halting in front of a door. "I'm just at the end of this corridor, and Mickey's over there, so you're not on your own, all right?"

Clyde frowned, glancing along the corridor. "Where's Mickey?"

"There," Nathan said patiently, crossing the corridor and brushing his fingers over one of the doors.

"He doesn't have a guard?"

"He's the Doctor's Companion. He's on his own recognisance."

"Why can't you do that?"

Something flickered over Nathan's face and was gone again before Clyde could read it. "I'm a minor. So are you. Do you need anything? There's toiletries in there."

"Thanks," Clyde muttered. Nathan turned away and he blurted, "Can I sleep in your room?"

Nathan turned back, frowning. "We can swop if you want, but..."

"No. I mean, share."

"Why?"

"Long day. Don't wanna be on my own." Nathan was still frowning, not understanding, and he shook his head. "Never mind. Good night. I'll see you in the morning, I guess."

"No, don't...of course we can," Nathan said quickly. "Do you want...this room or mine? I don't have any stuff here so there's no difference."

Clyde blinked in relief. He wasn't sure why the thought of being alone had worried him so much, but Nathan seemed willing to play along. "We're already here."

"True." Nathan smiled, turning to deal with the ever-present escort – not Marks, Clyde vaguely noticed.

He stepped into the room, studying it idly. It was like a hotel room, comfortable and absolutely bland. It did, he noted with relief, have two beds.

Nathan came in behind him, closing the door and stepping into the tiny bathroom. "Pick your bed," he advised Clyde, closing the door behind him.

When Clyde finished in the bathroom Nathan was already in bed, curled on one side and watching him. "Thanks," Clyde murmured again, flipping the main light off and slipping into bed.

"It's fine. I told you – no, I told Rani. In New York my night guard stayed in the room with me. So I'm used to having people around."

Clyde sighed, rolling onto his back and shoving his hands behind his head. "You know that's not right, don't you?"

"I know it's a lot better than what they wanted to do with me."

Clyde blinked, surprised at the matter of fact tone. "What?"

"UNIT wanted to take me apart to see how I worked. The Doctor intervened, but if I hadn't been useful to them since then I think they'd have done it anyway. They're worried; there are other Bane out there, and UNIT think if they ever come here they'll be able to use me the way my mother did. We'd never know; you and I took down a Torchwood team and neither of us knew we were doing it."

"They keep telling me I did that, but I don't remember."

Nathan nodded. "Your job was shooting Captain Harkness every time he woke up."

"Oh." Clyde swallowed hard. "Cheers, mate."

"Mmm."

He lay in silence for a minute. "Do you think they could do that?"

Nathan shook his head. "It was all focused around my mother. It always was; other Bane couldn't give me orders. Well, the Bane Mother, but I was never around her – I burned my mother out, I told you that. She wouldn't have given any other Bane power over me. I was too valuable."

"Nathan..." Clyde started.

"I was the first Archetype who worked, you know. They'd tried before, on other planets. It never worked."

The distant tone was worrying Clyde. "Nathan," he said more loudly.

"Yeah."

"You don't think they could use you?"

"No. I don't think they could. It doesn't matter what I think, though. If the Bane come back..." He might have shrugged; Clyde couldn't see in the dim light. "UNIT will lock me away somewhere where I can't do any harm."

"Idiots," Clyde muttered.

"It's still better than being taken apart, Clyde."

"Do you think you'd leave UNIT, if you could?"

"And go where?"

"I dunno. Anywhere."

"Could Dr Jones come?"

"Why don't you ever call her Martha?" Clyde demanded. "Maria and Rani do, all the time."

"She isn't my peer. It's not polite."

"She doesn't care. Maria and Rani..."

"I don't have any control over them," Nathan said tightly. "They can call her whatever they want until she complains. I'll continue to call her Dr Jones until she asks me not to. Could she come?"

"Come..." Clyde frowned, trying to follow the jump.

"If I were to leave UNIT."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess. Why not?"

"I don't know what I would do out in the world," Nathan said quietly. "But I would follow Dr Jones into it."

"Do anything you want, Nathan. Go to school, make some friends, watch real TV and eat too much junk food. Or any junk food." He considered for a minute. "You could get a pet. Dog or cat?"

"Dogs don't like me." Nathan shifted, maybe rolling over. "They had search and rescue dogs on the New York base. They hated me. Barking, trying to bite me. No one could figure out why."

"Cats are better, anyway. More independent."

The door cracked open and the guard said quietly, "I thought the plan was for you to sleep?"

"Yes sir," Nathan said obediently, and no matter what Clyde tried when the door was closed he couldn't get Nathan to respond again.

* * *

They talked a little over breakfast, but it was harder in the light of day to share the confidences they had last night. Nathan brought him back to the infirmary when they were done, leaving him there with a smile and another chocolate bar.

"Last one," he said warningly. "Save it till you need it."

"Yeah," Clyde agreed, pocketing the bar and heading for his mother's room.

She was awake, talking quietly to Maria. Clyde leaned against the door, watching as they chuckled softly together.

"It's always the same," he said with a sigh. "Get two women together, they just can't help chatting."

"Clydey!" His mother held out her arms and he went willingly for a hug.

Maria was pretending to study the clipboard when he looked up, and he cleared his throat to get her attention. "Morning, Maria."

"Morning, Clyde. Enjoy your sleepover?"

"Yeah. At least, until the guard came in to give out to us for talking. I thought that was the point of sleepovers."

"Sleepover?" Carla repeated.

"Nathan."

"Nathan."

"I'm going to go and tell Martha you're up. She wanted to talk to both of you when you got here, Clyde."

"Thanks, Maria," Clyde said vaguely, helping himself to a glass of water from his mother's jug.

Carla waited until the door was closed to look back at him. "What's going on, Clyde?"

"Long story, Mum. Goes right back to the Bane invasion a year ago."

"I don't think I'm going anywhere, love."

"No." He smiled, settling into the chair. "I don't suppose you are."

* * *

He started with the Bane invasion. Carla had known he had been turned – she had been herself – and that he'd been found by Torchwood, but she'd been under the impression he'd been found afterwards, after the Bane influence had worn off. Now he explained how he'd been found while under the influence and held there, how he'd helped a brainwashed Nathan take the whole base down.

He had to backtrack then and explain Nathan. He wasn't sure how much Carla was absorbing, but she nodded along with his explanations.

"So the other day, the Daleks, I was crossing Bannerman Road..."

"Oh, Clyde, I wish you wouldn't. It's not safe on that road. They should knock it down."

"I know. I'm sorry. But I was walking across it when I saw the Daleks, so I ran for the standing house."

"They're dangerous, those houses!"

"I know, Mum. But Nathan was up in the attic..."

"What?"

"Big coincidence," he assured her. "I didn't know he was there, he didn't know I was there. Not until I heard him talking. He was in touch with UNIT, and Torchwood, and a couple other people, and they were all working to bring down the Daleks. And he was hurt and he needed my help, so I did."

"Course you did," she agreed, smiling proudly.

Clyde shrugged. "Once it was over, UNIT came to collect him. Dr Jones, she's his guardian, she had one of her guys bring me home. But you weren't there, and they wouldn't let me stay alone, so they brought me back here, to the base. I've been helping Nathan, mostly, staying out of the way. And then they brought you here."

"Oh, Clyde." She squeezed his hand and he smiled, determined not to look upset.

"It's all good, Mum. You're here, and you're fine. We'll go home when you're ready."

"That won't be long," Martha said briskly, breezing in and picking up the clipboard. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you." Carla glanced questioningly at Clyde.

"Mum, this is Dr Jones. She's been taking care of you."

"You've been looking after my boy?"

"He mostly looks after himself." She glanced up from the clipboard, smiling. "Besides, he helped save the world. Without Clyde we couldn't have found the man who ending up saving us from the Daleks."

"My Clyde?"

"Don't have to sound so surprised, Mum," Clyde said uncomfortably. "Besides, all I did was plug in a few wires."

"I saved the world with a story once. Sometimes it's the little things. Now, Clyde, if you don't mind, get out so I can examine your mother. It won't take long."

Clyde fidgeted outside until Martha let him back in. "It all looks good," she said as he reclaimed his spot beside the bed. "I want you to eat something, Carla, and depending on how that goes I'll release you."

"Isn't that a bit early?" Clyde protested.

"Not at all. Your mother's doing really well. She's luckier than most. Now." She signed the board, putting it to one side to study them. "What do you want to do?"

"Do?" Carla repeated.

"We can take you home, if you want. There's some limited travel being allowed around the city now, so you'd be all right. Or you can stay here until things even out a bit. Clyde's been helping Nathan, and we could find something for you to do, Carla."

"Oh. I hadn't..." Carla frowned, glancing at Clyde. "Can we talk about it?"

"Of course. I'll go see about the food." Grinning at Clyde, she left.

"We can go home, Mum," Clyde said carefully.

"Yeah. Don't you like it here?"

"It's all right. Bit strict."

"Martha seems to like you."

"I make Nathan laugh."

"Oh, she's...I didn't put that together. She's his guardian."

"Yeah. Mum, d'you want to stay here? I don't mind."

There was a tap at the door and Clyde looked up to see Nathan. "Dr Jones asked me to bring you this," he said, nodding towards the tray in his hands.

"Thanks." Clyde took it from him. "Nathan, this is my mother, Carla Langer. Mum, Nathan."

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs Langer."

"I hear you've been keeping Clyde occupied."

Nathan glanced at him. "He's been helping me. And teaching me about art. It's very interesting."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it." Carla glanced at Clyde.

"I'll catch up with you later, Nathan," Clyde said quickly, hustling him towards the door. Nathan nodded, heading away.

"There's something about that boy," Carla murmured.

"He doesn't really get the social stuff. Look, Mum, spag bol."

"I bet it's not as good as yours."

* * *

Maria went to collect the tray, smiling politely when she was introduced. "I hope you enjoyed your lunch, Mrs Langer."

"You know, you kids are going to make me feel old. It's Carla, understand?"

"Sure. We missed you at lunch, Clyde."

"We've mostly been eating together," he explained to Carla. "I'll catch up with you later, Maria."

"You don't have to keep sending them away, Clyde," Carla said quickly. "Come and tell me what's been happening, Maria."

Trapped, Maria agreed. "Nothing's really going on at the moment. Most of the civilians who were brought here during the attacks have been released back to their homes."

"What do you do here?"

"I volunteer in the infirmary. My dad works in the computer systems, security mostly."

"And..." Carla glanced at Clyde. "There's another girl."

"Rani. She works in operations – dispatching teams, compiling reports, that kind of thing."

"Right. Lot to take in."

"Martha said you were almost ready to be released." Maria reached for the clipboard.

"Stop reading that thing." Clyde took it from her, tossing it to one side of the room. "Yes, she's almost ready to be released, but Martha said we could stay on base until things calm down and we're trying to decide."

"Your part of London was mostly unharmed," Maria said thoughtfully. "You'd be safe, and there's a couple of shops and things open. Power's steady, water's on..." Catching Carla's look, she grimaced apologetically. "Sorry. Rani's been processing those reports for two days, and she brings her work home with her."

"You'd miss us, though, right?" Clyde said, grinning.

"Oh, desperately," she agreed mildly. "I'd have to root Nathan out of the lab at least twice as often as I do now."

"See, I have my uses."

"Few and far between though they are."

"Oi. Don't be running me down in front of my mother."

"Someone needs to deflate your ego every so often."

"Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with boosting her opinion of me."

Maria nodded, but Clyde caught the flare of pain in her eyes and winced. "Yeah. You're right. Mrs Langer..."

"Carla...

"Clyde's brilliant and if you guys go home, UNIT may very well collapse around our ears." Glancing at Clyde, she added in a stage whisper, "Better?"

"I'll settle for that for now."

"Oh, good. I'm glad."

Clyde stood suddenly. "Maria, do you mind staying with my mum for a bit? I want to talk to Martha."

"No one has to stay with me," Carla protested.

Maria frowned, studying him. "Course I don't mind. Martha should be in her office about now. Ask one of the nurses to point you."

"I will. Thanks. I won't be long, Mum."

"Take your time. Maria and I will be fine."

* * *

Martha was just finishing off some paperwork when Clyde tapped at her door.

"Come in, Clyde. Give me a second; I just have to finish this."

"Take your time," Clyde said easily, wandering around the room and looking at the pictures and knick knacks she kept. "These alien?"

"Some of them," she said distractedly.

"From the Doctor?"

Something in his tone caught her attention and she looked up. "No. I was with him when I got them, mostly. But they aren't from him, really." She signed the last form and pushed it to one side. "What's up?"

He left the shelves, dropping into one of the seats in front of her desk. "Wanted to thank you."

"It's nothing. I meant what I said to your mum; you helped save the world."

Clyde shrugged. "I striped a couple wires. It wasn't a big deal. Nathan did most of it, on a broken ankle."

"He'll do that," Martha agreed. Clyde was staring at his hands and she leaned forward, trying to catch his eye. "What's wrong?"

"I wanted..." Abruptly changing his mind, he shook his head. "It's nothing."

"It's something. Is it about your mum?"

"No. She's fine, talking to Maria." Expression changing, he looked up. "Unless she's not fine. Is something wrong?"

"No, no," Martha said quickly. "Everything's fine. I really think I'll be able to release her today."

Clyde relaxed slightly. "Ok. Good. Thank you."

"So what's wrong?" she asked gently. He shook his head again, and she said patiently, "You don't have to talk to me, but you made the effort to come and look for me. It's on your mind."

Clyde nodded slowly. "I don't know if this is any of my business," he started. "And I'm sure there's all kinds of things I don't know, background and reasons..."

"Go on," Martha said when he stopped. He flicked a glance at the door; catching it, she rose to her feet and closed it firmly. "There. Private."

"Nathan," he said after a minute. "You know he's unhappy, don't you?"

Martha took a breath, taking the moment to compose her answer. "I know he is sometimes. Everyone is sometimes."

Clyde shook his head. "He doesn't like being here, in UNIT."

"You know this how?"

"Things he's said, mostly. The way he acts." He leaned forward as he became more animated. "When that general came down to demand his answers – and by the way, I don't think Nathan got any kudos for that – Nathan stepped in front of me. Broken ankle and all, he was trying to protect me. He thought there was danger. He talks about any topic I bring up, like he's starved for chat. I asked him if he liked it here, he said 'It's better than being taken apart'. That was the best he could come up with." Leaning back again, he added, "I asked him if he'd leave, know what he said?"

"What?" Martha murmured.

"Wanted to know if you would come too. He doesn't know the world, he said, but he'd follow you into it."

Martha stared at her hands, trying to get her thoughts into order. "Clyde, you don't know..."

"Backstory. I know that. Him and me took down a base so he can't be trusted." Clyde shrugged. "He was alone on Bannerman Road. Could have run if he wanted. But he didn't, he got back in touch with you and saved the world. There's no Bane around here."

"You've been spending time with him." Martha met his gaze. "Do you think he could fit in, in the world?"

"Yeah. It'd take time and help, but he's not...we had a kid in my last school, Asperger's. Nathan isn't any worse than him. Better, maybe, Josh wasn't really social. Nathan'll make the effort."

"You think so?"

"I'm pretty sure. He'd like it in the world."

"Yeah," Martha murmured, eyes distant.

"Look, sorry." Clyde pushed to his feet. "It's not my business. But I wanted to tell you what I see."

"No. Thank you. I appreciate it, Clyde."

"Right. I'm going back to my mum."

"Thanks, Clyde." Martha smiled at him, rising and watching him leave.

Sitting back down, she considered the piles of paperwork on her desk for a moment before sighing and getting back to work.

* * *

Maria was perched on Nathan's desk, talking softly while he worked on whatever he was working on. Martha watched for a moment before clearing her throat and stepping forward.

"Afternoon, Martha," Maria said brightly.

"Good afternoon, Dr Jones," Nathan echoed.

"Afternoon, guys. Maria, I need to talk to Nathan for a minute."

"Sure," Maria agreed, sliding off the desk. "See you for dinner, Nathan?"

"Yes. Bye, Maria."

Private Marks followed Maria out, closing the door carefully, and Martha turned back to Nathan. "What are you working on?"

"Power supplies. I had an idea to protect the supply, so if another race attacks we shouldn't have the outages we did this time."

"How's it coming?"

"I need a little more time, but it's almost ready. It'll take time to implement. I think most UNIT bases could be protected within a month or so once I have it ready."

"Sounds great," Martha told him, glancing at a couple of the sheets. Nathan let her look for a minute before tugging lightly at the sheet to get her attention. "What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"You sent Maria and Private Marks away. You didn't do that to ask me what I'm working on."

She nodded. "Are you happy here, Nathan?"

Unexpectedly, he smiled. "Clyde talked to you."

"He did."

"I thought he might." He looked back at his work, shuffling the sheets together.

Martha leaned forward, putting a hand on the sheets. "Nathan."

"I'm not unhappy," he told the desk. "I like UNIT. I can learn here. You and Maria are here."

"Then why does Clyde think you want out?"

He looked up, meeting her eyes. "The General doesn't like me. If the Doctor wasn't protecting me, the General would have me taken apart. And Clyde – thinks the regimentation here is wrong. He thinks it's unhealthy; I should go to school and have friends and get a cat."

"You'd be bored off your head in school. UNIT's running out of things to teach you."

"That was my argument. But he thinks a family would be much better than what I have here."

"And what do you think, Nathan?"

He shrugged. "I'm not unhappy here, Dr Jones. This is what I know. And it's better than life with Torchwood or my mother."

"You were with Torchwood for four days."

"And this is better than it, no matter how hard Captain Jack tries." He smiled. "I like Clyde, Dr Jones."

"I can see that."

"His mother is a trained secretary."

"Is she?"

"UNIT are short on secretarial staff."

She smiled despite herself. "Are we going to pick up new staff every time you leave the base?"

"We didn't pick up new staff any other time I left the base ever," he protested.

"Have you talked to Clyde and Carla about this?"

"No. Clyde doesn't like UNIT much, and his mother is still not well. Besides, it's not my place to offer staff positions."

"We hired Mr Jackson."

Nathan turned away, gathering the sheets together and neatly writing a cover sheet for the packet. Martha watched him, frowning. "Why does that bother you? I thought you liked Alan."

"He's very nice," Nathan agreed without looking at her.

"Nathan."

He grimaced. "You hired Mr Jackson because Maria can control me. Please don't pretend that's not true," he added quickly, and she snapped her mouth shut so fast she almost bit her tongue. "UNIT thinks Maria can talk me down if the Bane find me again."

"Why do you say that?" she asked carefully.

He smiled painfully. "I saw the plans. On the aide's desk in General Sanchez' office, last time we went up there. Standard orders; at the first sign of Bane, find the deepest hole available and get me into it, and bring Maria."

"They're worried about you."

"They don't want to lose a resource."

"No," she said, firmly enough that he met her gaze. "I mean, that too. But you have to admit, you don't want to go back under Bane control."

"It's not possible. No other Bane even know about me, and even if they did, my mother gave control only to herself and the Bane Mother. No one else."

"They don't know about you?" Martha repeated.

"Archetype science never worked before. I'm the first. No one even knew my mother was trying it; she didn't tell them in case it didn't work."

"I could grow to dislike your mother," Martha said, just loudly enough for him to hear. "Nathan –"

Her earpiece chimed and she sighed, reaching up to tap it. "I'm in a meeting – what? Ok. Find Mickey Smith, find Clyde and the girls. We're on our way. Come on, Nathan."

"What is it?" Nathan asked, pushing his sheets into order and following her out of the room. Marks started to follow them and Martha waved him off, movements quick and angry.

"The TARDIS is outside."

"What? Why?" Nathan frowned, keeping pace with her. "Is something wrong?"

"If it isn't now, it will be when I get my hands on him. Come on."

* * *

Clyde caught up with them a couple of corridors along, the girls were waiting just inside the main entrance, and Mickey was standing outside. Just beyond him was a row of UNIT soldiers; Martha ignored them, ploughing through to thump a hand against the TARDIS door. "Doctor!"

"Why is she angry?" Nathan asked Mickey quietly.

Mickey shrugged, watching carefully. "Women, mate, who can tell?"

"Careful," Maria said from his other side.

The TARDIS door opened and a young man leaned in the frame, scowling. "Don't hit the TARDIS, that's not nice. She's never done anything to you. Well, she kidnapped you that one time, but that wasn't her fault."

Martha faltered, staring at him. "Who…"

Mickey moved suddenly, coming up behind her. "Boss," he said, nodding to the man.

"Mickey," the man said evenly. Still looking at Martha, he reached up and untied his bow tie. "Like so. See?"

Martha stared at him for a long moment before grimacing. "Before or after?"

"After. I'm the one after yours."

"A long time after?"

He started to answer, thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Yes. A long time after. You'll see him again."

She nodded stiffly. "And why are you here?"

"Partly to resolve a paradox. And partly because you need to know something I didn't tell you last time you saw me." He glanced over her shoulder at the row of guards, and at the kids huddled together just in front of them. "Nathan! Come along. Bring your friends if you like." He turned, stepping into the TARDIS.

"Dr Jones!"

They turned to see the General push between two soldiers. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "You work for UNIT, Dr Jones. Bring the boy back inside, and get these children back to wherever they're supposed to be."

"Sorry, sir," Martha said cheerfully. "I'm needed on the TARDIS." She caught Nathan's shoulder, steering him towards the door. "Don't touch anything," she said in an undertone, and Nathan nodded quickly.

"This is treason!" the General shouted.

"The Doctor is our ally, sir!" She waved at the girls behind her back, and they hurried towards the door, Clyde on their heels. Mickey was waiting by the door, watching the soldiers behind the General. "And he's my friend, and if he needs my help he gets it. You can call that treason if you want."

She ducked through the door, Mickey on her heels. The Doctor snapped his fingers without looking up from the console; the door thudded shut.

"Bit different in here," Martha noted, stepping past the girls to join Nathan and Clyde by the console. "All on your own, Doctor?"

"What, with all these children and UNIT workers I just picked up?"

"I don't work for UNIT," Mickey said mildly.

"I probably don't either," Martha said ruefully.

"And we're not children," Maria said firmly.

"No. 'Course you're not," the Doctor said, surprisingly gentle.

"Doctor," Martha said. "Are you alone?"

He studied her for a moment before shaking his head. "She's around here somewhere. Didn't want to crowd us."

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Clara. My impossible Clara."

"Nathan," Mickey said warningly. Martha glanced around to see Nathan clasping his hands behind his back, studying the console closely.

"You might never get him out of here now, Doctor," she said, forcing a bright tone.

"Well, that's sort of the point, isn't it. Thing the first; no one contacts Donna for any reason, Martha, I'm putting you in charge of that."

"Excuse me?"

He glanced up, expression deceptively mild. "Donna. You remember her? I know it's not been as long for you. Yay high, red hair, shouty?"

"Yes, I *remember* her! What's going on?"

"Same thing as Rose, wasn't it?" Mickey said. "Burning her up from the inside."

The Doctor nodded. "Donna doesn't remember. Anything we saw, anything she did. If you remind her, she'll burn. So no one talks to her. Please, Martha."

"I'll make sure," Martha agreed softly.

"Good!" He grinned, clapping his hands together and spinning away to examine another section of the console.

"I think this one's more manic than the last one," Mickey noted.

"You wouldn't have thought that was possible," Martha agreed.

"Kids!" The Doctor paused in front of them, grinning. "What do you think of my TARDIS?"

"It's beautiful," Rani said sincerely.

"Does it really travel in time?" Clyde asked, gingerly touching the extreme edge of the console.

"And space," Maria told him gleefully. "I've read reports."

"You're not supposed to be able to get at those!" Martha protested. Maria grinned over her shoulder at her, eyes bright.

The Doctor nodded, pausing in front of Nathan. "Well, Nathan? What do you think?"

Nathan looked up at him, frowning slightly. "Is she alive?"

"What, the ship?" Clyde said in surprise.

The Doctor was nodding. "In a way, yes. Not quite the way most people would understand life, but yes. How did you know?"

"The way the controls are laid out. They're designed for six pilots, but you don't have that many people usually. The TARDIS must help you."

"She's always liked me," the Doctor agreed softly. "So! Martha! Shall we go on a trip?"

"Not with the kids on board, no," Martha said firmly. The girls immediately protested; Clyde was watching Nathan carefully. "No. What would I tell your parents?"

"Time machine," the Doctor said, sing song.

"I've seen your attempts to hit a specific time, Doctor," Martha told him. "We really don't need to be gone a year."

"One time, that was one time! And I'm much better at that now. Clara uses the TARDIS as a rewind button for life."

"Nathan, do you want to?" Clyde asked loudly.

Nathan blinked, looking around. "No," he said unconvincingly.

Martha studied him for a moment. "Nathan…"

"No."

Maria rolled her eyes. "He does want to. He wants to learn about the TARDIS, and all the worlds out there. He's always wanted to, since he heard about the Doctor."

"Maria," Nathan protested.

"You're allowed to want things," she said firmly.

"It doesn't matter. UNIT aren't going to let me go."

"You're already here," Clyde pointed out. "UNIT can't get in, right, Doctor?"

"No one gets in unless I want them in," the Doctor agreed. "Want to come on a ride, Nathan?"

Nathan looked at Martha, hesitating. "I don't…"

"You don't like UNIT," Clyde reminded him.

"*You* don't like UNIT. I'm fine there. I like to learn and be useful, and I can do those things there. No school on Earth can teach me the things I learn there."

"No school on Earth," the Doctor agreed mildly. "But I know some schools in other places."

"Doctor," Martha said warningly.

"The boy is brilliant, Martha. He could do amazing things, if you let him."

"The boy is a boy, Doctor," Mickey reminded him. "He's fourteen."

"A year," Nathan said automatically.

"Either way. Too young for the TARDIS."

"I dunno, he's not much younger than another genius boy I had once."

"Yeah? How'd that work out, then?"

The Doctor's face closed off and he turned away, fiddling with a control. Mickey frowned, glancing at Martha, who shrugged.

"Nathan," Maria said softly, "do you want to go?"

Nathan swallowed hard, looking panicked. "I can't –"

"Forget everything else," she said in the same soft tone. "Forget UNIT and Bane, forget Martha and me. Do you want to travel in the TARDIS?"

He swallowed again, gaze drifting over the console. "More than anything," he admitted, so softly it was barely audible.

The Doctor looked at Martha, who was frowning. "Nathan," she said, stepping past Mickey to join him. "You know that if you go with the Doctor, you can't come back to UNIT. Not safely."

"I know," he agreed. "I didn't say that I was going. Only that I want to. I won't go if it makes it difficult for you."

"Me, don't worry about me. I can handle myself no problem."

"And you have back up," Mickey agreed. Martha grinned at him.

"Nathan?" the Doctor asked gently. "Do you want to come?"

Nathan turned to Maria, but she was already shaking her head before he'd even spoken. "I can't, Nathan. My dad. I can't."

"We can bring you back…"

"If nothing happens out there. I'm sorry. I want to, really I do. But I can't. He doesn't have anyone else." She touched his shoulder. "You understand, don't you?"

"Yes." Nathan forced a smile. "Of course I understand. I always understand."

"I'll come."

They turned to look at Rani; she shrugged under their gazes. "I mean, if I'm invited. Am I invited?"

"Everyone's invited," the Doctor told her.

"Then I'd like to come. Please. I'm not a genius like him, but I bet I could help."

"I bet you could," he agreed. "Welcome aboard, Rani Chandra."

Rani smiled, and then swept Maria into a hug. "Love you," she murmured into the other girl's shoulder. "And I love your dad. But I'm going."

"Be happy," Maria said just as softly.

"I will," Rani promised, taking a couple of steps back. Clyde nodded awkwardly to her – he hadn't known her very long, after all – and Martha stepped in to give her a hug. Mickey saluted her behind Martha's back.

"What about you, Mickey?" the Doctor asked. "Coming with?"

"Nah. I told you, I'm done with that. 'Sides, someone's got to stay here and take care of the things you miss."

"If you're sure." He turned, grinning. "That leaves you, Clyde."

"What?" Clyde said in surprise.

"Do you want to come?" Nathan asked hopefully.

Clyde swallowed, looking around the room. "Can you really bring me right back here?"

"Right back here. Five minutes after we leave," the Doctor promised.

"Can he do that?" Clyde asked, directing it at Martha.

"He couldn't when I was riding with him, but that was obviously a long time ago for him." She smiled faintly. "Come here for a second, Clyde. Doctor, no listening in."

"I'll never get tired of people telling me what to do in my own TARDIS," the Doctor said, apparently talking to the time rotor. Rani laughed softly, drawing Nathan aside and distracting him by demanding he tell her about the console controls; Mickey skulked after Martha and Clyde, listening quietly.

Nathan didn't try to listen to what they were saying, though he probably could have. Instead he let Rani distract him, becoming absorbed in figuring out the controls. The Doctor had obviously modified them extensively over the years; Nathan could sense the underlaying order, but some of the controls defeated him and he had to ask the Doctor to explain them to him. Rani listened, though he wasn't sure how much she was following.

Clyde slouched back towards them a couple of minutes later. "I'd like to come," he said. "If you promise you can bring me back, Doctor. My mum's here on the base."

"I promise," the Doctor said solemnly. "Martha, still got your phone?"

"Never go anywhere without it," she assured him. "Never know when you might have to call up a rogue Time Lord."

"Well, then, if we're not back five minutes after we leave, you call me."

"Will do," she agreed.

Nathan stepped across the room suddenly, hesitating in front of her. "Are you sure you won't get into trouble?" he asked, watching her. "I can stay. I don't mind."

"I mind. Go and be brilliant, Nathan. I won't get in trouble. I know too many of UNIT's secrets for that."

"If there is any trouble, Martha," the Doctor said absently, "find Kate Stewart. She'll make sure you're all right."

"You make sure they're all right, Doctor," Martha ordered, gesturing to Rani and Clyde. "I'm trusting you, you and your Clara."

"We'll be fine," he assured her. "What are you going to do now, are you going to stay in UNIT?"

Martha shook her head. "I don't think so. I think I'm finished there. I'll find some other way of helping, something Nathan can do if he comes back."

"When," Nathan said firmly, and she nodded but didn't correct herself.

"Need a hand?" Mickey offered, and she grinned.

"I don't know what I'm doing yet, but I'll keep you in mind."

The Doctor was grinning, Nathan noted, but he wasn't sure why, and before he could ask the TARDIS shuddered very slightly. "Right!" the Doctor said briskly. "Time we weren't here. Nathan and Clyde, say your goodbyes. Rani, you can say some more goodbyes if you like."

"Isn't Clara going to mind that three teenagers have appeared out of nowhere?" Rani asked.

"Nah. She'll be all right." He started poking at the controls – not doing anything, Nathan noted, just poking at them.

Mickey shook his hand firmly, and Maria threw her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I want to go with you. I just can't leave my dad."

"It's all right," Nathan told her. "You should be with him. Family is important." She let go, drawing back a step, and he added, "You're going to be jealous when we come back, though."

"Probably," she agreed with a laugh. "Clyde, you take care of him, yeah?"

"I'll be too busy having fantastic adventures of my own," Clyde said loftily.

"That's the spirit!" the Doctor agreed without looking up.

Nathan stepped past Mickey to Martha. "I can stay," he offered softly, though he was fairly certain by now that she wouldn't accept.

"No," she told him. "I'm leaving UNIT, so it won't matter. And you're going to learn things you never even imagined out there. You wait and see."

"I'd rather learn them with you."

"I know," she agreed softly. "Earth was always going to be too small for you, Nathan. Go and be fantastic. Just don't let the Doctor take you to the Bane homeworld, yeah?"

The last sentence was louder, and Nathan guessed it wasn't aimed at him. Ignoring it, and the Doctor's indignant response, he took a step closer and asked very quietly, "May I hug you, Dr Jones?"

"You may," she said just as softly. "And Nathan? My name is Martha."

"Martha," he repeated, and then she was holding out her arms and he stepped into her hug.

For one moment, he allowed himself to pretend she was his mother. Then he drew back, smiling. "See you in five minutes, Martha."

"See you then, Nathan," she agreed. Maria came to join them and Martha shepherded her down to the door; Mickey followed behind them, turning to wave once. The door opened, the three slipped out quickly, and it thudded shut again before anyone outside could get in.

"Right!" the Doctor said. Nathan jumped, realised he'd been staring at the door, and turned away, moving to join the others at the console. "So. Where to first, my hearties?"

"Did we join a pirate ship when I wasn't looking?" Rani asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oooh, I can do a pirate ship! They love me on that ship, I saved their lives. Shall we do a pirate ship? We could buckle our swashes."

"Let's not," Clyde said firmly.

The Doctor leaned over towards Rani. "Is he going to spoil all our fun?" he asked in a stage whisper.

"Someone has to be sensible," Clyde pointed out.

"Who wants to be sensible? Sensible usually just means boring. Who wants to be boring? Not me. Come on! Someone pick a place, or a time, or a place and a time."

"Can we go somewhere historical?" Rani asked.

"If you like. Where's good? Where would you like to go?"

"Hanging gardens?"

"Hanging gardens!" the Doctor crowed. "Let's go do the hanging gardens. All in favour? Aye! And I get the deciding vote, because it's my ship. Right. Let's try this out, all four of us steering. Clyde, come around here, press this button when that light goes green. Rani, here, keep this lever in the middle. Nathan..." He considered Nathan for a moment. "Well, you do what you think is good."

"Can we really go there?" Nathan asked, touching the edge of the console lightly.

"Course we can. Why not? I can go anywhere."

"No one knows where the Gardens were, exactly."

The Doctor waved that off. "No humans know where it is. Well, except the ones who actually live there. That's not a problem, we can get there in a jif. Are you ready?"

Nathan nodded, glancing at the nearest display screen. It showed the outside of the TARDIS; Martha and Mickey, arguing with the General, Maria standing nearby with her father. "I'm ready."

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked gently.

"Yes." Nathan glanced across at Clyde and Rani, smiling. "Let's go be amazing."

The Doctor laughed, flicking a switch, and the TARDIS faded away.


End file.
